YuGiOh! Way of the World
by RedemptionWarrior
Summary: Making a living in the world is tough for the average person, so for duelists that are far from average, it's quite the ride. Prepare to see life from a different perspective, as it's time to DUEL! Chapter 11 is here now.
1. Prologue

Let's see if third time's the charm. This is my most recent attempt at a fanfiction. Hopefully, this is my best, as I'm giving it all I've got. Reviews will definitely be appreciated, but flamers are not welcome.

From how I thought of this, cards that are very rare or unique in the Anime are a lot more common, but still considered rare. Also, for the most part, this fic will be real life cards only. If I do decide to use cards from the anime or created cards in a chapter, I will say so here. In addition, unless I say that the disks are customized, they are the standard disks from the GX era.

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh is not mine, it's the brain child of Kazuki Takahashi. If it was mine, then 4kids would never have gotten their hands on it.

Prologue

* * *

It was the finals of the Sun, Moon, and Stars Exposition, a wide scale tournament for Duelists of the Light attribute. All around the arena the crowd cheered; excitement had been building up to this moment, when one finalist would fall and the victor would become the champion for that year. On one side of the center platform, dressed in faded blue jeans, a black t-shirt, and an open, dark blue Letterman Jacket, was Aaron Marshall. He was a tall, brown haired guy, who looked about 17 years old, with a slight tan. On his side of the field was a shiny pink dragon, Seiyaryu (2500/2300), in Attack position and a dragon that looked like it was constructed out of rough diamond, Hyozanryu (2100/2800), in Defense position. Plus he had four cards in his hand and 5800 life points left.

His opponent, Alex Marmaduke, was also male, but was definitely older, with darker hair and dressed in a grey pinstripe business suit. He had just drawn a card, so his hand now totaled five cards, with an even 5000 life points left. He had a face-down card, a Pyramid of Light trap card, a Precious Cards from Beyond magic card active, and two blue and violet bipedal sea serpents wielding golden spears in one hand and a shield the same color as the monster in the other, Kaiser Sea Horses (1700/1650), in Attack position on his field. Both had standard duel disks and a pyramid made out of translucent blue colored walls surrounded them.

Crossing his arms, the youth said, "Give it up, you geezer. You haven't shown me a monster with more ATK than Soul of Purity and Light (2000/1800) and I defeated her when I brought out my Seiyaryu. That Radiant Spirit (2000/1500) didn't help you out at all either."

The older man replied curtly, "Those monsters were only in my deck because I had to have something to take the place of the monsters I had to take out so I could enter." He started to smile. "However, you won't be ahead of me for long, now that my Pyramid of Light is active and my true strategy is revealed."

He picked a card in his hand and shoved it into his disk. He shouted as the card's image, Gazelle, King of Mythical Beasts and a man engulfed in lightning, appeared in front of him, "I activate Double Summon! This card allows me an extra normal summon this turn only. So I'll now tribute both of my Kaiser Seahorses," his two monsters dissolved into spheres of light, "and I'll set two monsters face-down." The spheres formed the backs of two duel monster cards as they sat there in defense position.

Grinning, the man said as he reached for his deck, "The two monsters I set were two tribute monsters, so my Precious Cards from Beyond activates twice, allowing me to draw four cards."

He quickly drew them, and his grin got wider. Plucking one card from his hand, he exclaimed, "I now activate Book of Taiyou!" The card image was a book with a large sun on its cover. "This lets me flip a face-down monster into face-up Attack postion, so say hello to my Andro Sphinx (3000/2500)!"

A monster appeared before Alex, a large bipedal lion wearing blue armor, and it gave out a bone-shaking roar, but the man was not done as he picked another card from his hand. "Now for my other monster; I'll first use this card: Magical Stone Excavation! By discarding two cards from my hand, I get to reclaim one magic card from my graveyard, so I'll choose my Book of Taiyou."

A shovel appeared as the man played the card and dropped two cards into the graveyard. It started to dig, but stopped quickly when it hit a small patch of glowing crystals with a thunk. The man's graveyard began glowing in tandem with the crystals and a card popped out of it. Picking the card up, he immediately placed it into his disk again. As the card reappeared, the face-down monster flipped over, revealing a grey furred lion with wings and a female face, that would have been equal to the other one in height if it stood on its hind legs. The man started laughing as his monsters roared in unison with each other, before calming down enough to say, "You're the one who should give up, Aaron. You're no match for my two sphinxes. Isn't that right, Sphinx Teleia(2500/3000)?"

The monster gave the boy a savage grin, bearing fangs that looked like they could crush solid rock. He merely looked bored at this display as he started motioning with his hand for the man to continue. Frowning at the apparent lack of concern on the boy's face, the man picked a card in his hand and activated it, "Behold as I play this card, Block Attack. Antiquated, I know, but it's very useful for my sphinxes as you'll soon see. I can now switch one monster on my opponent's field in Attack position to defense position, so say good night little dragon."

Waves of energy shot out from the card, struck Seiyaryu, and caused the shiny dragon to land on the ground, shielding itself with its wings. Grinning at his opponent's misfortune, Alex pointed at his opponent and exclaimed, "It's time to tear down your defenses right before your eyes! Sphinx Teleia, it's feeding time!"

At the command, the monster launched herself onto the grounded Seiyaryu, biting deeply into the dragon's neck and shattering it to pixels. When the dragon shattered, the giant beast looked at the duelist and let out a deafening shriek, his life point counter decreasing to 4650 as the harsh sound waves washed over him.

As Aaron was recovering, the man swept his hands in a grand gesture and shouted, "Your turn Andro Sphinx; kill his Hyozanryu!"

The armored beast shot forward and grabbed the diamond dragon between its claws. With a quick tug of its hands, it pulled the dragon apart before it shattered. Like Sphinx Teleia before it, Andro Sphinx glared at the younger duelist and roared, his life points again decreasing to 3600 as the powerful sound waves brought him to his knees.

Standing straight up after a short recovery time, the younger duelist demanded an explanation. "How did I lose life points when they destroyed my monsters?"

The smirking Alex was happy to reply with, "That's their effect...When Andro Sphinx destroys a monster in defense position, half of the destroyed monster's ATK points come out of your life points, while Sphinx Teleia's effect does the same thing for DEF points. Oh, by the way, it's your turn."

Drawing his card quickly, he froze for a second as he looked it. A grin began to spread over his face as he kept the card in his hand while he took two other cards from his hand and placed one of them on his disk, declaring, "I summon my powerful Kaibaman (200/700) in Attack Position!"

A man bearing a striking resemblance to the famous Seto Kaiba, wearing a helmet shaped like the head of a Blue-eyes White Dragon, appeared in a flash of light, crossing his arms in a gesture that seemed to make him look down on the opponent of his summoner. This was lost on the man and his beasts, though, as they busted out laughing. Kaibaman didn't like that apparently, as he scowled furiously with his hands dropping down to his sides in clenched fists. While his opponent was laughing, the younger duelist picked Kaibaman's card off his disk and replaced it with the other card he had picked from his hand with it, saying as he did so, "Laugh all you want, because I'm activating Kaibaman's effect."

Kaibaman smirked before being engulfed by a column of intense light, as his duelist continued, "By tributing Kaibaman, I can special summon a very powerful monster from my hand. Come forth, my proud Blue-Eyes White Dragon (3000/2500)!"

The column of light expanded as a roar that caused the ground to tremble emanated from it. When the column faded, a powerful looking dragon could be seen; shining blue-white scales, claws and fangs that looked like they could tear through steel with little effort, and eyes that seemed to pierce the soul of whoever it was staring at. Both sphinxes cowered under its gaze, as if its very presence sent fear into their hearts. Their duelist wasn't faring much better, as anyone could tell from his wide eyes and his hanging mouth.

When he realized his mouth was open, he shut it quickly. Then he shook his head and demanded in an aggressive voice, "How in the world did you acquire a Blue-Eyes White Dragon? The only known duelist with them in his deck is Seto Kaiba, all of the other known copies of that card are in the hands of super rich card collectors."

The Dragon duelist smirked a little at this question, his gaze flickering to the audience, before responding, "I have a friend to thank for that. It's too bad that he decided not to enter into the tournament, he said he had wanted to stay out of the limelight for a little while. Besides, since when is it a crime to own rare cards?"

Holding up the card that he had drawn, he continued, "Anyways, while I could just take out Sphinx Teleia, you might decide to suicide your Andro Sphinx to take out my Blue-Eyes then attack me directly with a newly summoned monster. So, to avoid that, I'm using this card: Burst Stream of Destruction! I can only activate this card when I have a Blue-Eyes White Dragon face-up on the field, but since I do, this card acts exactly like Raigeki, destroying all monsters on your side of the field!""

The card image appeared, a close-up of a Blue-Eyes charging up an attack, and his monster followed suit, launching a powerful ray of energy, which struck right between the two sphinxes and destroyed both of them in an explosion that rocked the arena. Even as the smoke cleared, though, laughter could be heard throughout the arena. It was the older duelist's laughter and the reason he was laughing was soon apparent. Standing in the middle of the clearing smoke was an even larger monster; a centaur-like hybrid of the two previous sphinxes. The bottom half was like Sphinx Teleia while the top half was like Andro Sphinx.

After the laughter had stopped, with a grin plastered to his face, Alex declared, "I should thank you. After all, I can't pull this beast out unless both of my sphinxes are destroyed at the same time. Of course, there is a small price of 500 life points, but that's insignificant. So why don't you greet him – Theinen the Great Sphinx (3500/3000)?"

The giant beast let out a massive roar that almost toppled Aaron. It was when he was recovering his footing that he noticed his opponent's life point gauge showed him at 4500, which started to down some more, to 4000, as Alex continued, "Also, I can pay 500 life points when I special summon Theinen the Great Sphinx to increase his attack by an awe inspiring 3000 points until the End Phase of the turn!" (6500/3000)

Shaking his head to clear it of distractions in the face of this monster, the younger duelist aimed his next comments at his opponent. "Well, you wasted those life points, because even if I wanted to attack, I can't attack with a Blue-Eyes White Dragon after activating Burst Stream of Destruction."

His opponent shook his head, and replied, "I didn't need to anyway, as Theinen has 500 more base ATK points than your Blue-Eyes. However, I have an unbeatable combo here that will assure success when my turn comes around. Face-down trap card open, reveal Interdimensional Matter Transporter!"

A strange device appeared above the giant monster, which was transported into the machine like something out of Star Trek before the machine disappearing. Triumphantly smirking at his opponent, the older duelist decided to reveal what happened to the rest of the stadium. "As you can plainly see, my Interdimensional Matter Transporter has transported my Great Sphinx off the battlefield and he'll be there until my End Phase, when his effect should wear off, but because he won't be on the field for it to wear off, he'll get to keep it. In case you don't know what that means, boy, it means that I'll be able to wipe out your life points as soon as you end your turn."

Glancing at his hand for a second, the young adult shot back, "Well it's still my turn, and I'm sure I can turn this around somehow. As they say, 'It's not over until it's over.' I'll fight until my life points are gone and I'll never give up while I still have cards to play."

He swiftly took one of the two remaining cards in his hand and stated, "Like this one: I activate Trade-in! I have to discard an 8-star monster to activate it, but it lets me draw two cards."

He placed the last card in his hand into the graveyard and quickly drew two cards from his deck. Giving them a once-over, he picked one up and set it into his disk, then waved his hand to end his turn. The strange device from before reappeared and Theinen rematerialized from it. Standing there a bit disappointed, the older duelist drew his card.

Not even bothering to look at it, he tucked it into his hand, then pointed toward his opponent and said, "Seems that you failed...Time to end this, Theinen..."

Aaron hit a button on his disk with a flourish, "Face-down trap card open, reveal Call of the Haunted! Bring back Cyber Valley (0/0)!"

The facedown card flipped up, showing a bunch of gravestones surrounded by violet smoke. Emerging from the card was the same kind of smoke shown in its image, which formed into a small, gleaming metal serpentine creature with some sharp, spike-like edges along its sides. It settled by the much larger dragon with a screech directed towards the opposing duelist. Confusion flooded Alex's mind when he took in the stats of the new monster.

"Why did you bring back that thing? With your life points so low, you'd risk it with a monster that weak?"

A smirk spread across Aaron's face, but he remained quiet. His opponent began to think, **This kid's crazy. Risking the duel on a monster like that...It's got to have some effect that makes it worth bringing back, but what kind of effect would it have that would be worth being brought back on my turn? Maybe some kind of self-sacrifice? I've heard of some monsters that have such an effect, it being destroyed in place of an other monster. Gah! I'm giving myself a headache just thinking about it.**

Swiftly pointing at the serpentine machine, he commanded, "Theinen, call his bluff and wipe out his newest monster, along with the rest of his life points!"

The giant centaur sphinx pulled back its right arm, then the machine vanished into a portal that just appeared underneath it. Theinen paused in confusion, settling into an alert stance for a few moments, before deciding that the enemy was gone and folding his arms to say it was done. Blinking in surprise, his duelist muttered, "Okay...what just happened?"

"Allow me to explain, then," the younger duelist declared, as he was drawing a card. "My Cyber Valley has three effects, all of which involve it being removed from play. The effect I used can only be triggered when my opponent declares it as an attack target. Then, after it has removed itself from play, it ends the Battle Phase and allows me to draw a card."

Clenching his teeth, the older duelist looked ready to blow a gasket, which only got worse as Aaron continued condescendingly. "Don't feel too bad, I would have used one of the other two effects if you decided to attack my Blue-Eyes. One would have removed Cyber Valley and one other face-up monster I control to let me draw two cards, while the other would have removed Cyber Valley and one card in my hand to place one card in my Graveyard on top of my deck. Anyway, I believe its my turn, unless you want to take your second Main Phase."

A furious wave of his hand indicated that he ended his turn, allowing Aaron to start his. Drawing his card with confidence that many people would not have in the face of Theinen, he added it to his hand before giving them a once-over. His eyes widened when he realized what the monster he had just drawn was. Ever so slowly, his confident smirk changed into a happy smile as he placed his hand with the card he had just drawn and used one of them.

"It's time to bring down your ugly kitty there. Behold the Dragon's Mirror! This card allows me to Fusion summon a monster by removing the material components on the field and/or in the Graveyard from play, so here comes a monster that has brought several duelists to their knees with its presence – the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"

A massive, gold-rimmed mirror appeared behind the BEWD as golden light shot out from Aaron's Graveyard. The light faded to reveal two more White Dragons, roaring proudly as they floated beside the one that was already on the field. His opponent just stood there staring in shock and surprise at the three dragons. It was while the dragons were being pulled towards the mirror that his mind registered what was about to happen. Letting out one last unified roar, the three dragons vanished into the mirror.

Silence reigned for a moment, the whole audience holding their breath as they waited for something to happen. They didn't have to wait long, for the mirror shattered into thousands of fragments as a burst of light filled the arena. Everyone had to look away to keep from getting blinded by the intense light. Moments passed before the light ebbed, revealing a massive form where the light used to be. Even bigger than Theinen the Great Sphinx, with three heads and a brilliant white hide; the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon (4500/3800) certainly lived up to its name.

"And if you liked that, then you'll love this! He may be called the Ultimate Dragon, but his form can continue to grow stronger, as I can tribute him to summon his most powerful stage yet! Evolve Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, into the unstoppable Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon!"

Hushed whispers began to spread over the crowd as the dragon itself fell silent. It was in this state that the cracking along the dragon's hide became audible. Smaller cracks soon became bigger as light began to pour out of them. Like shattering stone, the dragon seemed to burst outward from within and from the remains emerged a streamlined shape, almost like a jet. As if it had just awoken from slumber in a cramped space, the new dragon stretched itself out; revealing its streamlined, metallic hide, covered with lines of shining blue light. (3000/2500)

"And, get this: for each Dragon-type monster in my Graveyard, he gains an additional 300 ATK points. So let's count them up." He pressed a button on his disk that revealed what was in his Graveyard and counted. "Hmm… There's a Mirage Dragon (1600/600), two Divine Dragons Ragnarok (1500/1000), the Kaiser Glider (2400/2200) and the Magna-Slash Dragon (2400/1200) you made me discard earlier. My Different Dimension Dragon (1200/1500), my Seiyaryu and Hyozanryu dragons, and finally, the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon...all told that's nine dragons in my Graveyard, for a grand total of 5700 ATK points." (5700/2500)

His opponent breathed a quick sigh of relief as he noticed the ATK score of his opponent's monster was quite short of his sphinx's 6500 ATK. Feeling like rubbing it in, the older duelist retorted, "You fail at math or something? Your dragon is 800 points weaker than my Theinen."

Aaron's smile never left his face. Picking up the last card from his hand, he shouted, "I activate, Burial From a Different Dimension!"

Depicting a greenish metal capsule-like coffin, the card appeared on the field beneath the Shining Dragon as Aaron's Graveyard glowed with ominous light. Hitting the button that revealed his Graveyard information, his smile widened when it showed the three Blue-Eyes White Dragons in his Graveyard.

"Before you ask me what happened, my Burial From a Different Dimension lets me choose up to three monsters that have been removed from play and return them to the Graveyard. So, the three Blue-Eyes that I removed with Dragon's Mirror are now back where they belong. That gives my Shining Dragon 900 more ATK points, which means that your Theinen is no longer the strongest monster on the field!" (6600/2500)

The sphinx was now looking frightened as it tried to take a step backward, but couldn't with the little room that was left on the platform. His duelist was no better off, his remaining cards falling from his limp hand. The crowd was cheering and chanting Aaron's name as he gave the command, "Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon, Shining Neutron Blast!"

With a powerful roar, blue energy collected in the Shining Dragon's mouth to form a sphere, which launched as a torrent-like stream. The blast hit Theinen head on, punching a hole through its chest before it shattered into pixels with a cry of pain. Hardly anyone noticed the duelist's life points fell by 100 points to 3900, even the duelist himself. He was in too much shock that his strongest monster, in its greatest form, had been beaten in battle. Sinking down to his knees, he weakly raised his hand, holding it over his deck, and said, "I surrender."

* * *

With the tournament finally over, Aaron and his friends were raiding various food stands of the expo as a way of celebrating Aaron's victory. Passing through crowds of people that wanted to talk to and congratulate the new champion, he and his friends found a diner-esque stand that served ice cream. While they were waiting for their order, Aaron took a good look at his friends, two stood on his left while the other stood on his right. The female on the left was Maev Orlan, a girl with short, dark red hair and two differently colored eyes, one chocolate brown and the other a golden amber. She was wearing a denim skirt, a white t-shirt and a jean jacket to match her skirt. Standing next to her was the tallest of the group, Laird Douglas, an androgynous male with platinum blonde hair and dark green eyes in uniform gray slacks and long-sleeve shirt. Both had deck holsters on belts around their waists and duel disks on their left forearms.

The young man, James Maverick, also known as Legion to his friends and most people in the dueling curcuit, on his right was definitely not the average duelist. Dressed in mostly dark colors, it was hard not to notice the bandoleer across his chest or the pair of belts crisscrossing his waist, all of which were packed with deck holsters. On his right forearm was a custom-ordered duel disk, cobalt blue metal with a tray shaped like a U sticking out perpendicular to the base. His black hair was long compared to an average guy, so it was hard to get a good look at his face from the side. Aaron took his attention away from his friends when the ice cream came.

Where most friends would celebrate a tournament win, this group simply sat in silence, eating their ice cream. At least, that's how they were in the eyes of the public, but when they get back to the hotel room they were staying at, their true personas would appear. After polishing off their ice cream, the four friends quickly set out for their hotel, only a few blocks away from the Expo. As they entered, they acknowledged the clerk behind the front desk and made their way to the room they all shared. Laughing could be heard through the door as the four of them celebrated the victory. Maev was giving Aaron some major hugs, almost squeezing his guts out while Laird was taking pictures of the two with a digital camera he always kept with him. Sitting on one of the beds, Legion merely smiled in amusement at the antics of his friends.

After they all calmed down and were all sitting down somewhere, the girl said with a small drawl in her slightly Irish accented voice, "Seriously Aaron, I thought you were a goner when he brought out that sphinx. You don't see monsters with that level of power all that often and for you to take it down with so much confidence was quite the shock to us."

While he was scrolling through the pictures he had taken, deleting some as needed, the blonde male spoke up in a voice that sounded almost as feminine as it did masculine, "Are you doubting him, Maev?"

Whirling to face the speaker then waving her arms defensively, she replied, "That's not it at all, Laird. I just didn't want him to lose. This is one of the few tournaments that he was able to duel in where Legion here, "she pointed to their dark clothed friend, "decided not to enter."

Legion looked at his friend, seeing her face clearly, as he leveled a gaze at her two colored eyes. One chocolate brown eye and one golden amber eye blinked back at him when he looked over at Aaron. His voice was relaxed when he stated, "You don't have to thank me for not entering. Some of my probation decks were starting to act up, so I had to focus on them. Besides, my decks always come through for me so I have yet to lose, even to you guys."

What he said was true; even though they always give him a challenge in a duel, he was undefeated in his dueling record. They all doubted that he could have defeated any of the Legendary Duelists, like Yugi Muto, Joey Wheeler, or Seto Kaiba, but that didn't mean that he couldn't give them a run for their money before losing. As for his "probation decks" as he called them, it was well known in the group that he could see Duel Spirits. In fact, every monster in all of his decks were Duel Spirits. Some were merely bored, so their decks acted like an amusement park for the spirits in-between duels. Others were benevolent spirits that wished to do good in the world, so their decks acted like Headquarters for them. Then, there were the malevolent spirits. They're kept in Legion's probation decks, which act like a prison for the spirits with other spirits acting as wardens. Outside of a duel, he kept these probation decks in their deck-cases with sutra talismans on them to keep the influence of the malevolent spirits contained.

The other members of their little group merely nodded at his statement, but then Laird asked, "So, which decks tried to cause trouble this time? Was it the Archfiends again, or did the Dark World Fiends do it?"

Legion shook his head, "Neither this time. The Aliens were the ones that started it actually, with the Arcana Force behind them followed by the Cyberdarks. It's a pity really; the Cyberdarks were doing so well. Oh well, they're still making some decent progress towards becoming good spirits."

Again, his friends nodded to show that they understood, as they knew that he didn't talk about what he'd have to do when the malicious spirits try to get loose. Sitting in silence for a few moments, Aaron perked up as he thought of something to talk about, "Hey Legion, how's the newest probation deck coming along?"

Getting off the bed and walking over to his suitcase, Legion reached in and pulled out a deck case almost completely covered in sutra talismans, except for a single metal lock on it with no obvious way of unlocking it. They all knew what that meant. Whatever malevolent Duel Spirits were in there, they were dreadfully powerful. He had only taken such precautions with two other probation decks, both of which rarely ever saw duel time even now with their malevolence having greatly subsided. The only way to open that lock was magically, and they knew that it would take some powerful magic to force that lock open even after the removal of the sutras.

Legion held up the deck case, "It's not complete enough to contain the malicious spirit, but it's close, just a few more lower level spirits should do it. When we get home, that's the first thing I'm going to do."

Maev sat up ramrod straight and stuttered, "W-wait, you said malicious spirit, as in only one? You mean to tell us that this probation deck you're making is for containing one spirit? There's really a single malevolent spirit that powerful? Why haven't you merely destroyed the card if it's so dangerous?"

Nodding slowly to all of the questions except the last one, Legion placed the deck case back in his suitcase and answered, "Maev, this is one of those kind of Duel Spirits. Even with the power that I have, it's impossible for me alone to destory such incredible evil. The best I can do is contain it in a probation deck and help it gradually let go of its wickedness."

They once again sat their in silence after he returned to his previous seat. Maev broke the silence with a yawn, to which she got out of her seat and stated, "I don't know about you guys, but I'm bushed. I'm going to get changed, then get some shut eye."

Pulling some pajamas out of her suitcase, she swaggered tiredly into the bathroom, confident in her friend's ability to seal things. The guys looked at one another and shrugged, before they went over to their respective suitcases and changed into some sleep-wear themselves before they picked which two would sleep on which bed.

* * *

Watching the group's hotel room from a distance away, a figure standing in the shadows of the city lights rubbed his chin. Despite all of the precautions that Legion had taken, he was still able to sense the potent spirit that was dwelling in the deck case, albeit weakly. Taking out a cell phone, he dialed a number and got an immediate response. "Talk to me. Is the spirit we seek there?"

Quietly laughing, as if at an inside joke, the figure responded, "Oh yeah, it's there all right. Even though it had so many prodigious seals covering its prison, I was still able to feel it. Though, you told me that this spirit is awe-inspiring in its level of power, you haven't told me exactly what the spirit itself is."

He could almost swear that he felt the person he was talking to scowl over the phone before it gave him its reply, "That's not for you to know yet. Return to base and let me deal with securing the target. Trust me; this will be well worth the effort."

* * *

Author's thoughts:

And that's it. This prologue is done. It took so much more effort than I thought it would, but hey, "if it's worth doing, it's worth doing well". I'm not expecting instant success, but I do wish people will read and review. Constructive criticism will be taken into account, flamers will be utterly ignored, and anyone wishing to provide user characters, just send me the needed information and I'll see what I can do. Here's to hoping that this story is my best yet.


	2. Chapter 1

Sheesh, it took a lot of time for me to get this chapter finished. Normally, I'd finish a duel in one chapter, but with how it plays in my mind; the finale will have to wait until next chapter. It truly sucks when you can see something in your mind, but it's like you can't do anything with it because it won't come out. In my mind, it's easy to see why the duelist in this chapter, Brock, has a Monarch Control deck. He's a bully and Monarch decks are one of _the_ most net-decked themes there is.

* * *

Chapter 1

* * *

It had been a week since the end of the Sun, Moon, and Stars tournament and the group was going about their daily lives. Maev and Aaron were currently over at James' house, a larger than normal 3-story urban home. With a big screen TV in the living room, the three teenage duelists were watching some big time pro-duelists battle it out. At least, they were, until the scheduled duels ended for the day and advertisements for the latest Duel Monster cards came on. James turned off the TV just as Maev started griping about the commercials, "Jeez, they've been publicizing about these new Synchro and Tuner monsters even more than they were with the Gemini monsters. We get it, they have new rules to them that make them different to use. They can shut up about how these new monster classifications are going to revolutionize the dueling world."

Aaron and James just let her gripe. After all, her complaining about the hype over the Synchro and Tuner monsters meant that she wasn't complaining about some of the bad habits, like Aaron's habit of constantly cracking his knuckles, that they had developed over the years. They were trying to change those habits, but they still make the occasional mistake and Maev would pounce on them for it. While she was ranting, James's cell phone rang. Answering it with a swift "hello", he found out that the caller on the other line was Laird.

"Hey James, I'm sure Aaron and Maev are with you so I won't have to repeat this to them. I've told you about that duelist club I joined recently, right? You know the one that recruits people with out of the ordinary deck themes?"

"Yeah," James agreed.

Laird continued, "Well, with the newest booster packs coming out, the club president decided to have a swap meet at his family's card shop in the mall with discontinued packs at a reduced price. It's open to club members and anyone they decide to tell. I naturally thought of you, Maev and Aaron. You'd better hurry over here; the meet is going to be quick."

James glanced over at the friends that were with him, then turned his attention back to the phone and said, "Alright then, we'll be there shortly. Try to save some of the good packs for us."

"No promises there, Legion. It'll be a free-for-all. See you soon."

Hearing Laird hang up, James put away his cell phone. Maev had finished her rant just a moment ago and was excited to hear about a swap meet with a reduced price on cards. Aaron was all for getting some more cards, even if they were older ones. With smiles on all of their faces, they raced out to James's electric-powered Corvette.

* * *

The drive to the mall was very brief with a lack of heavy traffic. James found the parking lot pretty full for the time of day as he pulled into an empty slot. After everyone got out of the car, he locked it and they rushed to the card shop. Laird was there to greet them at the door. Smiling to his friends, they started to look at the various booster packs on sale.

Most of the cards that they got from the booster packs were cards that they already had, as in, they were common rarity cards. Talking amongst themselves and the other duelist club members, the trading began.

"That's a monster that I haven't heard of before. What is it called, Trevor?" Maev asked.

Trevor, a chubby boy about 16 years old, replied with a smile as he held up the mentioned card and another card, "It's called The Tricky (2000/1200). He's a pretty handy monster to have in a deck. Plus, he has this sweet support magic card called Tricky's Spell 4. Laird told me your deck theme and these would be great additions to your deck. They'd probably just gather dust in my collection, so I'm willing to trade for some support cards for low level zombie monsters."

"Low level zombies…you mean, like Skull Servants (300/200)?"

"Yes. Skull Servants are a big part of my strategy."

Maev sifted through the cards she had. Holding them up for him to look at, she asked, "Are these good?"

The cards she held up were; King of Skull Servants (0, 0), Goblin Zombie (1100/1050), Opti-camouflage Armor, and Aqua Chorus.

Giving the offered cards a once-over, Trevor said, "You can keep the King of Skull Servants, I already have three of them in my deck, but the others will be great additions."

* * *

Aaron was busy exchanging cards with Douglas, another dragon duelist.

"I hear you specialize in Light attribute Dragons. Well, since I specialize in Normal Dragons, I don't have use for this monster, "Douglas held up a strange- looking dragon monster named Phantom Dragon (2300/2200). "If you have something for either Normal monsters or Dragon monsters, I'll willingly trade it."

"I think I have a good trap for a Normal monster-based deck. Just a sec." Aaron searched through the cards he had on him. After a few seconds, he took out a card and showed it to Douglas. It was a trap card titled Common Charity. "What do you think?"

Douglas read the card's effect for a second before saying, "It's a done deal."

* * *

Laird had finished his trading while he waited for his friends. So, right now, he was in a debate with Jake Iroh, a fellow duelist club member, over the deck compatibility of Wind and Earth monsters for the summoning condition of Desert Twister (2300/2000).

"I'm telling you, Laird, they don't mix at all. Whoever thought of Desert Twister was an idiot for making a practically useless card," Jake declared.

"And I'm telling you that it can work. Fire and Water monsters can work perfectly together for Frost and Flame Dragon (2300/2000) and if those two elements can get along, then Wind and Earth can do it too," Laird retorted.

Jake crossed his arms and scoffed, "I suppose you have a way to prove that Frost and Flame Dragon can work also? I doubt it."

Laird responded curtly, "As a matter of fact, I do."

* * *

Legion was in negotiations with several people for some more cards for his some new decks he had in the works. Well, some more magic and trap cards; he never traded for monster cards unless the Duel spirit for it called to him. He had spread a bunch of cards out along a nearby table so others could get a good look at them.

"Whoa, you're willing to trade away three copies of Chaos Command Magician (2400/1900)?! You're nuts, my friend, "exclaimed Josh Quincy, a lanky black-haired boy old enough to be a sophomore in high school.

James nodded, ignoring the comment about his sanity, and said, "I'll trade those for some traps that support Dark monsters. I've been running short on them recently."

Josh nodded in response and then checked the cards he had with him. While he did that, Olga Shalashaska, a 17 year old Russian girl, browsed the cards James had on display. She stopped quickly when she spotted two copies of Helpoemer (2000/1400).

"I've been looking for some of these! What are you wanting for them, Legion? She inquired with a Russian accent.

James looked at her for a moment before replying, "Hmm, I have need of some good Pyro-type support cards. Or some good Fire-attribute support, whichever you have available."

* * *

And so it went on. People finding cards they wanted from James's display while trading for them in turn. The trading was going rather well for everyone when trouble decided to step into the picture. In this case, trouble was a 6' 3" brown-haired beefy jock, wearing the same uniform that Laird wore, and acting like he had a stick up his ass. He stomped across the pavement as though he carried a grudge against the ground he walked on. Bursting through the door, he pounded his way up to Laird.

The looming jock glared at Laird as Laird turned to face him. Laird's eyes narrowed as he stood his ground against the imposing person. Speaking in an arctic tone, Laird forced out, "What do you want, Hollybrass?"

"That's Brock to a girly-wimp like you. I'm here to pay you back for that insult you gave me last week," Brock ground out. "You made me look bad in front of my team and the cheerleaders, you girly son of a bitch!"

Laird scowled at Brock, "Not my fault you decided to put me in a surly mood. So, how do you plan on paying me back?"

"Simple, you girly bastard. You and I are going to _duel_, "Brock stated arrogantly.

Laird quirked an eyebrow at the beastly man and pointed out, in a condescending tone, "You don't have a duel disk, you Neanderthal. Did you leave it back at your cave or did you break it when you couldn't figure out where the 'on' button was?"

Growling in anger as everyone in at the card shop had a laugh at his expense, Brock strutted over to Olga and swiped her duel disk. Fitting it on his left arm, he took out his deck and slid it into the deck slot as he brutishly motioned for Laird to follow him.

Outside the card shop, Brock and Laird faced each other and activated their duel disks. While they were drawing their opening hand, a random duelist passing by shouted, "Hey, there's a duel starting over here."

A crowd quickly assembled around to two duelists as Brock said, "I apparently forgot to mention that there's a stake in this duel. The loser, which will be you, has to give their deck to the winner, which is going to be me. Don't worry though, I'll be fair and let you go first."

Laird drew his sixth card while thinking, _Fair isn't part of your vocabulary, Brock. I've heard from enough people that you run a Field Control deck based around the Monarchs__,__ the kind that any brainless idiot can make. However, even a baboon like you can seem to use it well enough and almost everyone who uses the Monarchs also has __**those**__ in their deck._

Sliding a card from his hand into his disk, Laird exclaimed, "I'll start this duel by activating this magic card, Painful Choice!"

The card's image, several people on either side in front of a soldier, appeared on the field as Laird pulled his deck out of its slot. Searching his deck, he explained, "Painful Choice is just that. I have to select five cards from my deck and show them to my opponent. Then, my opponent picks one of them and that card is added to my hand while the rest are discarded. So, which one is it going to be?"

He held up five cards; Mother Grizzly (1400/1000), Flying Kamakiri #1 (1400/900), Giant Rat (1400/1450), UFO Turtle (1400/1200), and Crystal Seer (100/100). Brock took one look at the five cards and laughed. With an arrogant smirk, he said, "You can keep that useless Crystal Seer."

Adding the specified card to his hand and sending the others to his graveyard, Laird said, "Actually, that's the one that I wanted you to choose. You'll find out why shortly, but for now, I'll activate a continuous magic card, Soul Absorption. While this card is face-up on the field, I'll gain 500 life points for every card that is removed from play."

The card, depicting several souls flying towards someone in the foreground, appeared during his explanation. Taking a few more cards from his hand, he announced, "I'm not done yet. Next up is, Double Summon! This allows me to make an additional Normal Summon this turn, so I'll use both of my Normal Summons to set two monsters face-down."

Two face-down horizontal cards appeared in front of Laird as he took the remaining two cards from his hand and set them in his disk, "I'll set these face-down and end my turn."

Brock guffawed as he reached for his deck, "You depleted your hand to do that. What an idiot move. Now you have to resort to Topdecking, as in only having the top card of your deck to play next turn. I'll show you how to really play your cards. My turn!"

Pulling the top card off his deck, he gave them a once-over and stated, "I'll kick my turn off by playing Pot of Greed."

A green pot with a grinning face appeared on Brock's field. It spat out two cards before disappearing. Catching them deftly, Brock said, "Even a Noob should know what Pot of Greed does, but I'll explain it for your sake. It lets me draw two cards."

Laird stood unperturbed by the intended insult, which caused Brock to pause as he waited for a reaction. Laird just crossed his arms and said nothing. Scowling in disappointment, Brock continued, "Anyway, since you have at least one monster while I have none, I can Special Summon this monster from my hand. Go, Cyber Dragon (2100/1600) in Attack Position!

Hearing this, Laird thought, _I knew it. Most Monarch duelists only see Cyber Dragons as tribute fodder. Very few people use Cyber Dragon the way it's supposed to be anymore._

In a burst of light, a serpentine machine materialized on the field. It gave a metallic screech as Brock continued, pulling Pot of Greed out of his graveyard "That's not all, I'll now Special Summon my Spell Striker (600/200) in Attack Position by removing one magic card in my graveyard from play and since I only have the one, it's an easy choice!"

A child-like monster, dressed in armor and a Viking helmet, emerged from its card and landed next to the Cyber Dragon. With a wave of its hand, a scepter came out of nowhere and landed in its hand. Laird's Soul Absorption glowed and his life points increased to 8500 because Pot of Greed was removed from play. Brock held up the five cards that remained in his hand. Picking one of them, he stated, "It's now time to start taking you apart. I'll tribute Spell Striker in order to summon my Thestalos, the Firestorm Monarch (2400/1000) in Attack Position!"

A bonfire suddenly erupted underneath Spell Striker, consuming it in an instant. The flames were extinguished just as quickly as they appeared, leaving a giant armored form behind. Thestalos was covered from head to toe in dull red armor, with small flames burning here and there across it. It raised a burning hand, but it paused for some reason before it lowered its hand again.

"Normally, I'd be able discard one card from your hand and inflict 100 points of damage to you for every level it had if it was a monster, but seeing that you don't have a hand, it's a wasted effect. Oh well, it doesn't matter. It's time to attack."

Cyber Dragon reared back and Thestalos rubbed his flaming hands together as they waited for the command. Brock grinned, then ordered, "Cyber Dragon, attack the face-down monster on my left with your Strident Blast!"

Cyber Dragon snapped forward from its reared position and released a powerful stream of energy from its jaws. The face-down card flipped up, revealing a grayish-blue jar with an eye peering out of the top. It was vaporized the moment it was hit by the blast.

Laird smirked at Brock, "That would have been a Morphing Jar. When it's flipped, we both discard our hands and draw five new cards. Considering that I didn't have a hand, it benefits me greatly. Now, who made an idiot move?"

Brock grumbled as he placed his remaining hand in the graveyard. Both duelists drew five new cards from their decks as Thestalos got ready for the order to attack. Shaking his head to clear it a little, Brock punched with his right hand and commanded, "Thestalos, attack the monster that has to be his Crystal Seer with Impact Blaze!"

The flaming monarch clasped his hands together and gathered his fires around them. Opening his hands, a sphere of solid fire quickly filled the gap. When it was about the size of a beach ball, Thestalos launched it at the remaining face-down card. The card revealed Crystal Seer, a gypsy woman with a veil over her face and a crystal ball hovering in front of her, when it flipped. Like the Morphing Jar before her, she vaporized when struck by the massive fireball.

Again, Laird smirked, "Crystal Seer has an effect of her own that helps me. When she's flipped, I get to pick up the top two cards of my deck. Then I select one of them and add it to my hand while the other one is placed on the bottom of my deck."

Quickly taking the top two cards, he gave them both a glance before he picked one and placed the other underneath his deck. Adding the picked one to his hand, he asked, "Is your turn over yet, Hollybrass?"

Grumbling about the uselessness of his cards, Brock waved his hand to end his turn. Laird drew his card, giving him seven cards in his hand. Without hesitation, he picked a pair of cards from his hand and declared, "I think it's time to reveal the strategy of my deck. I'll remove the Flying Kamakiri #1 in my graveyard from play."

The card slid out of his graveyard and he placed it inside his deck case. A breeze blew as Laird tossed a card on to his disk, "To summon Silpheed (1700/700) in Attack Position!"

The breeze became a gale, circling and circling until it formed a small twister in front of Laird. Most people in the crowd braced themselves against the winds. A form emerged from the mini-twister, causing it to dissipate instantly. Covered in whitish-green clothes, holding a wing-shaped wand with a green orb inside it, was a violet skinned woman.

Soul Absorption glowed as Laird's life points increased to 9000. Brock stared for a second before he burst out laughing. Both Laird and Silpheed gave him angry looks as he gathered his composure. Returning the glares with a smirk, Brock snickered, "How fitting that you summoned a girl, you girly bastard. Also fitting in the regard that she's too weak to do anything, except be a target for my monsters. So, is that all, girly-wimp?"

Laird scoffed as another card slid from his graveyard, "Not by a long shot, Hollybrass. I'll remove Giant Rat from play to summon Gigantes (1900/1300) on the Attack."

Gigantes, a brownish-orange ogre in a black breastplate, materialized in a flash of light as Soul Absorption increased Laird's life points to 9500. It brandished a tree trunk as its weapon with a deep growl. Brock seemed both dumbfounded, then pissed off at Laird's move.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, you girly dumbass? Trying to insult me again? Neither of your monsters got what it takes to defeat mine."

"Subject to change. How about I activate one of my face-down cards? Go, Burden of the Mighty!" Laird responded.

The hologram closest to Soul Absorption flipped up, revealing a continuous magic card with the image of a hand reaching toward a bird's nest while it sat on top of a helmet. Both Cyber Dragon and Thestalos cringed as they glowed with a dark aura. Brock gaped as he saw his monsters' ATK go down. (1600/1600) (1800/1000)

"What the hell did you do to my monsters, you girly jackass?"

"It's simple really. As long as my Burden of the Mighty stays face-up on the field, your monsters lose 100 ATK points for every star level they have. Now, since you didn't place any face-down cards, I don't have to worry about traps destroying my monsters. Get him guys. Attack with Gust Sonic and Oak Tree Pummel!"

Gigantes hefted his log weapon while the gem in Sipheed's wand glowed intensely. Silpheed swiped her wand towards Cyber Dragon, fast blades of wind tearing it apart in moments, while Gigantes started beating on Thestalos, only to end it by slamming the bottom of the trunk on Thestalos's head. Both monsters shattered into pixels and Brock's life went down to 7800.

"I'll set one card face-down and call that good for this turn."

The card had barely materialized when Brock drew his next card. He was scowling from being upstaged by Laird, but that changed when he saw the card he drew. He quickly plugged the card into his disk and said, "Time to get a new hand, I'll play Magical Mallet. This card allows me to pick any number of cards from my hand, shuffle them into my deck, then draw the same number of cards that I sent back. So, of the five I have thanks to your Morphing Jar, I'll send four of them back."

Having placed the cards the chose in his deck, he took his deck out and gave it a good shuffling before returning it and drawing four new cards.

"This is much better. I'll take control of this duel by first activating Fiend's Sanctuary!"

The card materialized on the field. In front of it, a pentacle appeared on the ground. A humanoid form made from metal spheres emerged from the pentacle.

"As you can see, it creates one Metal Fiend Token (0/0). While most tokens can't be used as tribute for a tribute summon, there is no such limit on this one. This means I can tribute it to summon Mobius, the Frost Monarch (1800/1000)!"

A column of ice engulfed the token for a second before shattering into pieces. In its place was another huge armored figure, only this one wore ice blue armor with some parts looking like it _was_ ice. It swept a hand toward Laird's face-up magic cards, coating them in a film of ice and shattering them. (2400/1000)

"And that's his effect. When he's Tribute Summoned, I can select and destroy two magic and/or trap cards on the field. It's obvious what I chose, so I'll continue with my turn by attacking. Mobius, attack Gigantes with Impact Glacier!"

Mobius created a massive ball of ice, much like Thestalos made his Impact Blaze, hurling it at Laird's ogre like it was a beach ball.

"I'm going to have to stop you there, Hollybrass. Face-down trap card open, reveal Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!"

One of Laird's face-down cards flipped up, a scarecrow made out of a cross of iron bars and miscellaneous metal odds and ends popped out of it in front of Gigantes. The ball of ice hit it dead on, but while the ice was blown into shards, the scarecrow was still in one piece. Brock gaped while Laird explained, "Scrap-Iron Scarecrow is a card that has come out recently. It negates one attack my opponent makes, then, instead of getting sent to the graveyard, it gets reset on the field. Quite the handy trap, don't you think?"

The card returned to its face-down position while Mobius shook a fist at Laird in anger. He ignored it while he drew his next card, giving him five total. Laird frowned at his hand, "Okay. I'll have to defend myself for now. Both of you shift into Defense position."

Silpheed and Gigantes knelt while shielding themselves with crossed arms. Laird also threw a face-down monster onto his disk and set one card in his magic and trap card slots, the holograms appearing in their respective places. He motioned with his hand to signal the end of his turn.

"Alright then, you girly queer, it's my turn. Draw!"

Brock drew as he said this, bringing his hand up to four cards. Taking one and placing it next to Mobius, he stated, "I now summon, Samsara Kaiser (200/100) in Attack Position."

A small armored person, only about a foot tall, marched out from behind Mobius. It saluted the taller man, who returned the salute with an acknowledging wave of its hand.

"Why'd you play a monster that weak in Attack Position?" asked Laird.

"Because I wasn't planning on keeping him there. I have a Double Summon of my own to use, " Brock plugged the magic card into his disk before continuing, "So, goodbye Samsara Kaiser, hello Zaborg, the Thunder Monarch (2400/1000)!"

Streaks of lightning shot out of the sky towards the mini-Warrior, blasting him to shards in a dazzling explosion. When the smoke cleared, again, there stood a giant figure in spark white armor that crackled with currents of electricity. It raised both hands and zapped Gigantes with a burst of lightning, blowing it to bits.

"Heh, the strongest monster you had went bye bye. Too bad, so sad…time to kill you!"

Laird rolled his eyes, "Once again, you have proven your lack of brain cells. Gigantes had an effect that would have benefited you if you had destroyed it in battle. It'd have destroyed all magic and trap cards on the field. Since you have none and I have three, it would have been the smartest choice to destroy one of my other monsters."

Brock growled at this information, before saying, "It doesn't matter, you don't matter. Because Samsara Kaiser was tributed for the Tribute Summon of a monster, he returns to my hand."

A card materialized in Brock's hand, bringing it up to two. He made a punching gesture as he declared, "Attack his monsters with Impact Glacier and Impact Lightning!"

* * *

James was watching beside Maev and Aaron as Mobius and Zaborg created spheres of their element. Despite the fact that all of his decks were inhabited by Duel Spirits, he would use those that weren't around the house. During which times, they'd usually take on a physical form. He'd chuckle when he'd remember how his parents had walked in on several Neo-spacians watching Star Wars. His parents didn't mind at all. In fact, even though they couldn't normally talk to Duel Spirits themselves, they were apt to use them whenever they had the chance. He never knew how his mother had convinced Dark Ruler Ha Des to help her in the kitchen or that Ha Des was such a good cook.

As he watched Mobius and Zaborg launching their attacks, a female voice popped into his head, _Master James. Master James. Someone has broken into the house._

James recognized the voice as Mind on Air (1000/1600), the greatest telepathic Duel Spirit that he knew. He spoke back in his mind to her; _What are they looking for?_ _Have you read his mind yet?_

He could feel the worry in her mental tone as she responded, _I can't…It's like he's got some kind of mental shielding. Even my abilities can't penetrate it._

James frowned as he thought about this information; _Mental Shielding…Someone doesn't want his mind to be searched. Have you alerted other Duel Spirits to the intruder?_

_I have…but he has some kind of weapon that dematerializes their physical form. Everyone hit by it has fled. They haven't left the house, but they can't rematerialize themselves!_

_Hmm…This is grave news indeed. I'll be there shortly, hold him there until then!_

_Yes, master._

James growled as he felt Mind on Air's mental presence disappeared. He's had people try to steal from him before, but never one this well prepared. He tapped Maev and Aaron on the shoulder and said that he had to get home in a hurry. They acknowledged this with a nod, knowing that he had an important reason for it, but never took their eyes off of Laird's duel. Forcing his way through the crowd, with some protests by the people he pushed past, he rushed toward the parking lot.

* * *

Silpheed shattered into pixels as she was hit by a ball of solid ice. The face-down monster flipped to reveal an effeminate man in a white cuffed and collared black priest garb with a wide-brim black hat on his head. Before the sphere of lightning hit him, he hastily created a small fireball and threw it at Brock. It hit him just as the monster that threw it was obliterated. Brock quickly put the fire out and brushed himself off as he growled, "What the hell was that, you girly queer?"

"You need some new insults, calling me a girly whatever is getting old. As for your question, that would be the effect of my Fire Sorcerer (1000/1500). When he's flipped face-up, I randomly remove two cards in my hand from play to deal 800 points of damage to you."

Laird showed that he only had one card left in his hand as he pointed to Brock's disk, which displayed 7000.

"Damn you, you girly bastard," Brock seethed.

"Don't forget…you also destroyed Silpheed in battle. When she bites the dust, you have to randomly discard a card from your hand. Get to it, Hollybrass."

Brock clenched his teeth in anger as he held his two cards so he couldn't see them and picked. He relaxed a little when he saw the card he had picked was Samsara Kaiser. Tossing it into his graveyard, he declared, "I'll set the last card in my hand face-down and end my turn here."

Laird readied himself to draw as he thought,_ I won't be able to hold him off if he draws a monster he can attack with next turn…This is quite the dilemma indeed._

Readying himself, he drew a card from his deck.

* * *

I'll hopefully have the next chapter ready a lot faster than this one was. I haven't gotten any reviews yet, so read and review. All comments and critiques, within reason, will be welcome.


	3. Chapter 2

Why haven't I gotten any reviews yet? This is technically the third chapter of this fanfiction, so let's see at least a few of them for this chapter. Reviews or not, I'll continue working on this fic. That's not going to stop, not until it's completely out of my head, which won't be for a long time. In this chapter, I'm going to be using a card that I've heard will be out for the OCG in the next booster pack, Crossroads of Chaos.

**Chapter 2**

James had just started his car when Mind on Air contacted him again. _Master James, I know what this burglar is after! I overheard him muttering about it. It's the Probation deck you haven't finished._

James's eyes became as big as dinner plates in an instant; the shock and surprise was immense. _You mean the one that's covered in Sutra talismans? Who is this person that he learned of that deck? Could my seals have not been enough to keep its power from being felt?_

_What should we do, Master? A mental shield, a weapon that can dematerialize a Duel Spirit's physical form, and, as some Spellcasters were found just a few moments ago, some kind of anti-magic field generator! He came prepared for just about everything! Why does he want that deck so badly?!_ By this point, the Duel Spirit sounded on the verge of hysterics, messing with her usually formal way of speaking. That made James snap out of his shock and set his mind to the task at hand, recklessly pulling out of his parking space and speeding out of mall's parking lot.

_I'm on my way, Air. Calm down and tell everyone to do whatever it takes to keep him occupied. He must not get his hands on that deck! I won't allow it!_ James called back to Mind on Air, determination and anger leaving room for nothing else in his mind. He could hear her mentally telling herself to calm down for a few moments before she gave affirmative and disconnected the mind link. Once the mind link was severed, James placed his entire focus on getting all possible speed from his car without breaking any laws. He knew that he had to get there as soon as possible, but he still had the sense of mind to realize that getting in trouble with the law would not help matters at all.

***********************************************

Laird drew his card, holding it out for a moment before bringing it up to his face to look at it. He breathed a quiet sigh of relief as he tossed the card he drew onto his disk, "I summon Rallis, the Star Bird (800/800) in Attack Position!"

An orange bird with a white breast, wearing a green armor headdress and a blue cloth around its neck with a golden star on the front swooped onto the field from out of nowhere. One of the most noticeable things about it was it had two pairs of wings; one, completely orange, that were more like arms than wings, while the other, top half orange with the bottom half white, was segmented for some yet unidentified reason. Brock took one look at Rallis's stats and roared with laughter, some people in the crowd joining in. Laird merely raised on eyebrow before setting the last card in his hand face-down, the hologram appearing in the space where Burden of the Mighty had been.

Maev could see where this was going. She had seen Laird play Rallis before and she knew what his effect was. Aaron had leaned over slightly without turning away from the duel, to ask Maev in a whisper, "I haven't seen Laird use that one before. What's his effect?"

Maev didn't turn her head away either when she leaned over slightly to answer, also in a whisper. "When Rallis does battle with another monster, he gains 200 ATK for every level star his opponent has. Laird usually tries to combo Rallis with Burden of the Mighty because, even with that boost, Rallis usually isn't strong enough to fight against most monsters used nowadays. "

She had a thoughtful expression on her face as she straightened up then started talking again. "There was this one specific combo he said he could use if he ever got swarmed by superior monsters, but I never got what it was out of him."

Aaron straightened also and nodded. "Maybe that's what he has set up right now. Laird's always been quite the clever strategist. Even Legion would compliment him on his skills."

Maev snorted at the mention of Legion, accentuating her slight Irish drawl on a few words. "Yeah, he'd compliment _all_ of us on our _good_ points, right before giving _us_ a major _beat down_. Seriously, outside of top twenty _best_ duelists in the world, I doubt _anyone_ can beat Legion. The only reason he hasn't entered into the Pro League is because he's too young; you have to at least graduate high school before you can apply for entry."

Again, Aaron nodded. Both of them went silent as Brock started his turn. He frowned at the card he drew before hitting a button on his disk, saying, "I activate my trap, Call of the Haunted, which I'll use to get back my Firestorm Monarch!"

Dark violet smoke billowed out of the flipped trap, igniting into flames as it formed into Thestalos. The revived monarch felt his head for a second before realizing that two other monarchs were looking at him. Waving an acknowledgement to them, he got into a ready stance as they returned the wave. Punching his right hand forward, Brock commanded, "Thestalos will begin the assault that will bring the pain on my opponent. Impact Blaze!"

Thestalos's mighty fireball launched at Rallis, when Laird called out in response, "I'll start a Chain. First trap card, Staunch Defender. When my opponent declares an attack, I can select one of my monsters, and not only is it the only monster you can attack, you have to attack it with every monster you have. Since I only have the one, it's an easy choice. Secondly, I activate Reinforcements. This trap increases the ATK of one face-up monster by 500 points. I'll give the boost to my Rallis." (1300/800)

Brock scoffed, "Even with 500 additional points, it is still way too…weak?"

Rallis's ATK began increasing as Thestalos's attack neared him, stopping at 2500. Brock gasped as Laird shouted, "Rallis, counterattack with your Star Stream Blast!"

Rallis's segmented wings formed a circle, six balls of light appearing around it. As the fireball continued to approach, the spheres gathered in the center of the circle and formed a straight line through it. When the spheres finished aligning themselves, they were engulfed by a thick beam of light that followed the path that Thestalos's fireball took. The beam blasted through and disintegrated the Impact Blaze, leaving Thestalos to step back in shock before getting blasted himself. Everyone in the crowd fell silent, allowing them to hear Brock's disk click down to 6900 life points. He seethed, but then grinned menacingly as a light bulb seemed to go off in his head when he growled, "The effect of your monster causes it to gain 200 ATK points for each of my monster's star levels when it battles that monster, I see. Well, I've got a surprise for you then. Zaborg, despite having the same stats as his fellow monarchs, is one level lower. Your Rallis is going down for that stunt you just pulled. Zaborg, fry that bird with your Impact Lightning!"

Zaborg raised both hands and formed a huge sphere of electricity, launching it at Rallis like it was nothing at all. Laird merely shook his head as he spoke up, "You forgot that I had Scrap Iron Scarecrow still on the field, didn't you? Then again, why negate an attack, when I can destroy your monster instead? Go, Prideful Roar!"

The face-down card Laird had set on his previous turn revealed itself, depicting a confrontation between Mobius, the Frost Monarch and a smaller, red armored figure who was surrounded by a crimson barrier. Everyone noticed that Laird's life points started dropping when he continued, "I can only activate this card when you declare an attack. I then pay life points equal to the ATK difference between your monster and mine, which is 1100, to make the ATK of my monster equal to the ATK of your monster plus 300 for that battle only, which will give Rallis 2700 ATK. Add Rallis's effect to that, and you're going to lose more in this exchange than I am."

Laird's life points read as 8400 as Rallis's ATK spiked to 3700. Only five spheres of light formed when Rallis made his segmented wings into a circle, but the resulting Star Stream Blast was much bigger than the previous one. The beam didn't blast through Zaborg's attack like it did Thestalos's, it engulfed it. Zaborg didn't even have the change to step back before he too was engulfed by the beam, Rallis's ATK returning to 1300 after the beam had finished. Brock grabbed his hair in frustration as his life points dropped to 5600. It only angered him further when Rallis gave a challenging squawk aimed at Mobius, who didn't even bother making his Impact Glacier - he just charged Rallis with intent to kill.

Rallis flew out of the way of the attack as his ATK once again increased to 2500. Mobius turned to face Rallis, only to see diving at him with talons extended. The sharp talons pierced the face mask of Mobius's helmet with ease, causing Mobius to shatter to pixels when he fell onto his back. Brock stomped viciously and shouted obscenities that would make drunken sailor proud, like they were a release valve for his anger, as his life points dropped to 5500. Most people in the crowd were either shocked at the use of such language, surprised at how easily Laird took down the three Monarchs, or worried that Brock might just forget this is a duel and try to attack Laird himself.

Laird himself frowned at Brock, "You kiss your mother with that mouth? She really needs to discipline you more."

Brock was breathing heavily from his shouting. He gave Laird the evil eye as he growled, "Shut it, you damn son of a bitch. When I'm done with you, not even your own mother will be able to identify your corpse."

"Just keep telling yourself that and it might come true sometime next century. The only people you've beaten in a duel are those that get intimidated by your brutal tactics. Well, guess what Brock. I have both the willpower to stand up to you and a deck that's built better than your netdecked theme . A powerful theme can only take you so far and you don't have the skill to take it the rest of the way. Once you lose here, you'll be a laughingstock at school. Your reputation will plummet and so will everyone's fear of you."

Brock clenched his right hand into a fist for a second before taking the last card in his hand and stuffing it into his duel disk. He made an obscene gesture at Laird and said, "I end my turn."

Laird drew, not really caring that Reinforcements had worn off, giving him one card in his hand. Taking only long enough to see what the card is, he quickly set it in a magic/trap card zone. Rallis was looking at him expectantly, as if wanting to be told to attack Brock. Laird gave his monster a slight smile and said, "Rallis, will you give Brock a kick for me?"

It needed no further prompting and swooped down on Brock to kick him in the gut with a clawed foot, sending his life points down to 4700. Instead of returning to Laird's side of the field though, Rallis faded into motes of light and vanished. Everyone in the crowd, except Maev and Aaron, murmured in confusion at Rallis's swift departure. Waving his hand to get everyone's attention, Laird explained, "That was Rallis's second effect. When he attacks, he is removed from play at the end of the Damage Step. Don't worry though; he'll come back at the start of my next Battle Phase. For now though, I'll end my turn."

Drawing his card with a glare, Brock growled, "I'll activate my face-down card, a trap called Reckless Greed."

The card flipped, showing a peasant man staring greedily at a box of treasure while it was sitting on a trap door and a snake crawled through it. Brock reached for his deck as he explained, "When I activate this card, I get to draw twice. However, I then have to skip my next two Draw Phases."

He pulled the top two cards off his deck and then said, "It doesn't look like I'll need them with what I just drew. I'll play the magic card, Pot of Avarice! I now select five monsters in my graveyard, shuffle them back into my deck then draw two cards. So, I'll pick my Thestalos, Mobius, Zaborg, Cyber Dragon, and Spell Striker."

The five monsters slid out of his graveyard slot. Picking them up, he vigorously shuffled them into the deck and then drew twice. He grinned at his hand of four cards, taking one and saying, "About your Gigantes. I knew his effect, but I didn't feel like activating it."

Laird quirked an eyebrow at Brock's statement and replied, "And why not? It would have been to your advantage to have used it."

Brock shrugged, "Just 'cause. That's not what's important right now. The reason I bring this up is…"

He turned the card he had picked to face Laird. It was a copy of Gigantes. Brock chuckled, "You know what this means. I'll remove the Samsara Kaiser that I left in my graveyard to special summon Gigantes!"

Samsara Kaiser slid out of the graveyard, where Brock took it and placed it in his deck case, before he tossed Gigantes onto his disk. An exact copy of Laird's Gigantes emerged on Brock's field, but Brock didn't keep it there for long, as he picked its card back up and declared, "He's not staying of course. He's only the forerunner for my next monster. I'll tribute Gigantes to summon my next Monarch; Granmarg, the Rock Monarch!"

The floor surrounding Gigantes rumbled and shifted, springing up to encase the orange-skinned ogre in an earthy-looking dome. It shattered from the inside out as Granmarg made his entrance. He was immense, like the other Monarchs, and was clad in armor of various shades of brown. Brock pointed at the hologram that he knew was Laird's face-down Scrap Iron Scarecrow, which had reset itself because of its effect. Granmarg stomped forward and slammed a fist into the designated card before stomping back. Laird's eyes narrowed as Brock gloatingly explained, "Granmarg's effect lets me destroy one face-down card when he's Tribute Summoned. Unless that other facedown can stop this attack, you're defenseless. Granmarg, get revenge for your siblings, attack directly with Impact Boulder!"

Granmarg slammed his hands on the ground in front of him, a sphere of rock popping out from between them. Pulling one arm back, he punched the rock at Laird. It struck him and bowled him right over, reducing his life points to 6000. Laird stayed still long enough to regain his breath then gingerly stood up. Brock smirked at his opponent's pain, "I'll let you off easy for now, just one facedown to end my turn."

Laird drew immediately after the hologram appeared. Again, he only looked at it long enough to see what it was before setting it on his disk. A facedown monster materialized in front of his remaining card. Taking a deep breath, Laird straightened himself up a bit before saying, "Your turn, Hollybrass."

"I thought I told you to call me Brock, you wimp shit," Brock growled as glanced at his two card hand. Remembering that he couldn't draw because of Reckless Greed, Brock merely ordered, "Granmarg, get his monster with Impact Boulder!"

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James couldn't believe his luck. He doubted even the luck that Joey Wheeler was famous for would have been good enough to pull off a miracle like this. He had yet to slow down with his driving because every red light he approached became green before he had to slow down. Not to mention traffic was almost nonexistent, a rare sight indeed around his city. A bit of pessimism entered his mind and told him that this chain of good luck that was happening to him meant a horrible event was going to occur to him when he reached home.

He ignored it. James was both undefeated and had powerful forces at his command – forces that ranged from magic and sorcery to Psionics. Shaking his head, he thought to himself as he drew ever closer to his destination, _Careful Legion, overconfidence and arrogance are two leading causes of defeat among duelists. Strength and prowess are two different things and you know that you aren't ranked against anyone in the Pro League yet. You'll get there eventually, but remember not to get ahead of yourself._

James chuckled when he realized that he had been around his friends a bit too much if he refers to himself as Legion on the rare occasion he talks to himself. He was still chuckling when he sped past a red light that had just turned green.

*******************************************************

Granmarg's boulder shot toward Laird's facedown monster, which flipped face-up in response to the attack. It was a grey-haired, young tribal woman with an arrowhead shaped dagger in one hand. Seeing the boulder coming toward her, she cocked her arm and threw the dagger at Brock before getting flattened. The dagger nicked Brock across his right cheek, actually giving him a bleeding cut. He brushed his cheek with his left hand when he saw his life points and noticed that they had dropped 800 points to 3900.

Brock snarled and glared at Laird, demanding for an explanation. Laird smirked as he replied, "Simple really. Your attack flipped my Lady Assailant of Flames (1500/1000). When she's flipped, I remove the top three cards from my deck and then inflict 800 points of damage to you. By the way, that means 7 of my cards have been removed from play this duel. That will be important for later."

Brock merely grunted in irritation and signaled the end of his turn. Laird shrugged, drawing his next card. Looking at it only for a moment to see what it was, he played it. Pot of Avarice appeared on his field and he said, "Well, would you look at that? I have my own Pot of Avarice, so I'll return Fire Sorcerer, Lady Assailant of Flames, Morphing Jar, Silpheed and Gigantes from my graveyard to my deck and then draw two cards."

The selected cards slid out of the graveyard slot, where Laird picked them up and shuffled them into his deck. After he was done shuffling, he pulled the two cards off the top of his deck. Giving them a quick glance, he declared, "I'll remove the Painful Choice in my graveyard from play so I can special summon Spell Striker from my hand."

A boy in blue armor and a Viking helmet similar to Brock's Spell Striker popped out from behind Laird as his Painful Choice left the Graveyard slot and he placed it in his deck case. This Spell Striker laughed and waved to the crowd, but then he glanced over at Brock and dropped any display of friendliness. He clenched his teeth and shook his scepter threateningly. Brock merely glared back and crossed his arms. Laird silently sighed in resignation at the childish antics of both his monster and his opponent. Well, they were being childish in his mind.

Holding up the last card in his hand, he announced, "I will now summon one of the strongest monsters in my deck and it's got a hefty price tag. I have to remove one Fire monster and two Water monsters in my graveyard from play, so I'll remove UFO Turtle, Mother Grizzly, and Crystal Seer."

Three monster cards were spat out of his disk and he slid them into his deck case before continuing, "To summon Frost and Flame Dragon (2300/2000)!"

A spiraling column of fire and water erupted out of the ground behind Laird, scaring the closest people in the crowd and causing quite a stir among the rest. The summoned monster became visible when the column subsided. It was a serpentine dragon with two heads; one made of red and orange fire and the other made of smooth ice. Both heads howled and the crowd surrounding the two duelists gasped in awe.

Brock looked relieved when he saw that Frost and Flame Dragon's ATK was lower than Granmarg's. Grinning, he decided to taunt Laird, "It's an impressive monster, I'll give you that, but it's just short of matching my Granmarg. Oh well."

Laird ignored the taunt and shouted, "Start the Battle Phase!"

As soon as those words left his mouth, Rallis faded into sight. It squawked a challenge at Granmarg, which was echoed by another howl from Frost and Flame Dragon and a war cry from Spell Striker. The closest people in the crowd just barely heard Laird yell, "Get him Spell Striker! Magical Bash Attack!"

Spell Striker swung his scepter like a baseball bat, sending a rippling wave through the air and slamming into Brock's gut like a sledgehammer, reducing his life points to 3300. While Brock was recovering from the blow, Laird was thinking, _Go ahead and attack next turn Brock. My set trap is Covering Fire. When you declare an attack, I can take the ATK points of one my monsters and give them to the monster you're attacking. You can't draw again until your next turn. I know you'd have played those cards if you could, but you haven't, which leads me to believe that you can't yet. As far as I see things, this duel is over._

When Brock regained his breath, he grumbled, "Spell Striker can attack a player directly. Also, when he's involved in a battle, the controller doesn't take battle damage. I'll get you for that cheap shot, you sorry excuse for masculine DNA."

Laird gasped in mock surprise. "Wow, Mr. Neanderthal said masculine. What a big word for a muscle head. Just learn a few more and you'll be ready for first grade."

That got under Brock's skin, much to the crowd's amusement. Most of the crowd was laughing their heads off. Brock, however, ground out through clenched teeth, "If you're done, then it's my turn."

Again, remembering that he couldn't draw for his turn, he took one card out of his remaining two. "I normally wait until I have some certain trap cards set on my field before I summon this monster, but I can't shake the feeling that you're up to something. Therefore, I'm going to do something about it. Granmarg, be gone! Make way for Kuraz, the Light Monarch!"

Granmarg was enveloped by a column of light. When it vanished, a monster just as big as all the previous monarchs was in his place. Covered in lustrous golden armor and carrying a golden disk on his back, he gave an aura of nobility. Brock wasted no time in launching on an explanation of his newest monster, "Kuraz is the newest monarch. He's the most powerful Monarch to date as his effect, which allows him to destroy any two cards on the field. Plus, it activates anytime he is normal or special summoned as opposed to the other monarchs, who must be Tribute summoned for their effects to work. Alas, he also has some downsides to him. First is the fact that he can't attack on the same turn he is summoned. Also, the controller of the destroyed cards gets to draw one card for each card destroyed, hence the reason I use him in conjunction with some of my own traps. However, to cripple what you have planned, all that is a small price to pay. Kuraz, destroy his Frost and Flame Dragon and Spell Striker."

Kuraz nodded, raising both hands and launching two searing beams of light towards the two targets. They were blown apart as Laird's disk beeped, indicating for him to draw. He took two cards from the top of his deck without a word. Brock grinned evilly and declared his turn over.

Laird didn't draw his card immediately. Instead, he stared at the two cards in his hand, then looked at his deck and silently said, _That was not what I was expecting him to do at all. And these cards I have now can't do anything for me yet. On his next turn, he'll be able to draw again. Knowing his deck, just about any draw he gets would be all he needs to take complete control of this duel. If I'm going to win this duel, it has to be NOW!_

Laird swiped the card of the top of his deck, holding it away from him for a brief moment. When he brought it up to his face, his expression lit up like a child on Christmas day. Setting it in his hand, he took another card and said, "I'll activate Soul Release! For anyone who doesn't know what this card does, I can select five cards in either players graveyard and remove them from play."

The card image appeared on the field, a woman made out of glistening blue energy, as Laird's graveyard glowed while he declared, "I'll remove Pot of Avarice, Spell Striker, Prideful Roar, Scrap Iron Scarecrow, and Soul Absorption. So I now have 16 cards removed from play."

The cards slid out of the glowing graveyard and Laird placed them in his deck case with the others. Brock looked kind of confused when Laird stated how many cards he had removed from play. Laird smirked and explained, "You look confused. That's quite understandable, so I'll be happy to let you in on a secret. Since you apparently haven't figured out my deck's theme, I'll tell you that it's based on the Element Spirits – you know, Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind? They're monsters that require other monsters of the same attribute to be removed from the graveyard to be summoned. And with 16 cards removed from play, one of my Trump cards is ready to make his debut. He's a level six Light monster, so I'll tribute Rallis, the Star Bird to make way for Golden Homunculus (1500/1500)!"

Rallis gave a screech of triumph before shattering into triangles. Appearing in his place was a humanoid figure way bigger than Brock's Monarchs. It was a golem-like construct that looked like it had been hewn from golden rock. It stayed silent as it towered over Kuraz. Brock appeared shaken until his caught sight of its stat meter. Calming down in an instant, he started laughing his head off. In fact, he was laughing so hard that he didn't notice the stats in the stat meter were increasing. It was only when he noticed his Kuraz was backing away from the Golden Homunculus that he again looked at the stat meter and all the laughter and amusement the seemingly weak stats of the massive monster invoked were instantly dashed to pieces when he saw Golden Homunculus's new stats. (6300/6300)

He only had enough strength left to say as his now limp-in-astonishment body sagged to the ground, "Impossible. Where did that increase come from?"

Laird held a look of victory on his face as he answered, "Golden Homunculus gains 300 ATK and DEF for every card I have removed from play. Admittedly, there is another monster I know of who would also be good in this kind of deck, but I think this big guy is much better in most cases. Either way, this duel is over! Golden Homunculus, strike down his Kuraz with your Golden Haymaker!"

The massive construct lumbered forward, slamming a fist as big as Brock down on the golden armored Monarch. A flash of light was all that indicated the destruction of Kuraz as Brock's life points hit zero. Laird walked up to the sagging Brock and said in a quiet but menacing tone, "I believe you said something at the start of the duel about the loser handing his deck to the winner?"

****************************************************************

James was almost home when some bad luck tainted his lucky streak; one of his tires blew out. Quickly slamming on the brakes, his car spun to a stop. Knowing what could happen if that thief found and made off with that probation deck, he leaped out of his car and ran like the devil was after him for the remaining few miles. Nothing was going to stop him from catching that thief, absolutely nothing!

It was lucky that he had decided to sprint the remaining distance , for just as he reached his house, the thief left right out the front door. Using his momentum, James blindsided the thief. They scuffled for a moment or two before breaking apart and standing up. James could now see the thief clearly; a balding man who was neither portly nor skinny. He wore an all black trench coat that was buttoned to just around the thigh, giving him plenty of leg room. On his left arm was the only none completely black thing on him, a custom duel disk. It was a dark gunmetal grey, with the deck slot in the shape of a skeletal hand and the base shaped like a jawless skull. The tray, while inactive, was shaped like a small sideways dome.

The thief sneered as he took a deck out of a pocket and set it in his disk. James reached up to a deck case on one of his belts that had a sutra talisman on it. Peeling enough of the talisman off to open the case, he took out the deck and followed the thief's example. Both disks activated; James's disk tray moving away from the base a bit before opening from a U shape to a V shape, while the Thief's sideways dome split open in three places and revealed a line of five spaces between the openings.

The thief glared at James and rasped in a ghastly voice, "You are James, the one called Legion. I am known as Deathless. I am aware of your power, but your power will not save you in this duel. Prepare to face one who has bested the Reaper of Souls himself."

James stood there as unshakable as a mountain, speaking calm and quiet in response to the rasp of Deathless. "Bested the Reaper of Souls, you say? Is that why you broke into my house to steal a deck that isn't yours? Because you're so sure of yourself and your prowess in a duel, that you think that I'll try to turn tail when you say that you beat the Reaper? I'm not bashing on your claim, but if you think I'll just let you waltz on out of here without a fight, then you're _dead_ wrong!"

They both exclaimed at the same time, "DUEL!"

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Whew. These chapters take a lot longer than I'm used to. Well, no use complaining because I'm making this fic happen. So to everybody who reads this, click on Submit Review and tell me your honest opinion.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The crowd had quickly dispersed after Laird's Golden Homunculus had flattened Brock's Kuraz. While Laird was getting Brock to make good on the bet they'd made at the start of the duel, Aaron and Maev were chatting to each other.

"I was just thinking, Maev. Legion drove us here, so how are we going to get back?" Aaron asked, somewhat concerned.

"How do you think Laird got here? We'll ask him about transportation," Maev replied, annoyed.

"Oh…that shows you were my mind is. Come on, come on. Let's go congratulate Laird on his win!" Aaron finished as he took off for his friend. Maev merely shrugged and sighed in resignation. Aaron was always like that and it was hard to get used to even after knowing him for years.

Laird held Brock's deck as Brock himself ran away like all of Hell was after him. He turned to greet Aaron when he heard him approaching. Maev stood back a bit while she watched Laird and Aaron chatter and laugh with each other over Laird's victory. It was while she was thinking about them that someone snuck up behind her, clapped their hands over her eyes and squealed, "Guess who!?"

Maev recognized the voice immediately and thought, _Ah Hell, not her. She just had to pick this time to come and be a pain to me, even though she doesn't really try to be._

She quietly sighed and replied to the person, "I know it's you, Sharona. What are you doing here?"

"What, no hello for me? Aww, that's cruel of you. I come over here to be friendly and I get a cold shoulder," Sharona complained in a cutesy voice as she took her hands off of Maev's eyes. When her eyes were no longer covered, Maev took a few steps forward then turned to face Sharona. Standing only a couple inches shorter than Maev, Sharona's cutesy face was framed by short, pink hair that she swore was natural. Smiling in a way that looked adorable, much to Maev's annoyance, she clasped her arms together and struck a pose that showed off her blue sundress. "What do you think? It suits me pretty fine, right Golden-eye cutie?"

Maev smacked a palm on her forehead and groaned at Sharona's pet name for her. She didn't like it, but telling that to Sharona was like trying to push a mountain uphill. Sharona came from a rare kind of rich family – the nice kind – but even though she wasn't spoiled rotten and snobbish like other rich kids, she was still hard-headed and set in her ways.

"Yeah, yeah…It looks good on you. You avoided my question."

"Well, isn't it obvious, Golden-eye cutie? What else would I be doing in a mall?" Sharona replied with a frown as she stopped posing, but she smiled again as she clapped her hands. "Say cutie, I've got some spending money left over from my little shopping spree today, so how about I treat you to some lunch?"

Maev held up a hand in a stopping gesture as she informed Sharona, "Thanks but no thanks, Sharona. I'm here with my friends and we'll be leaving once Laird takes us to wherever his ride is waiting."

Sharona shifted her weight to one foot so she could see Laird and then frowned when she noted that Laird had his attention on the deck in his hands. Laird was going over the deck he had won from Brock with Aaron looking over his shoulder asking for whatever card caught his interest. For her part, Maev saw the look on Sharona's face and did her best from turning around and snapping at Laird and Aaron. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she counted to three and relaxed. She tried not to let it bother her when she knew what she was going to see immediately when she opens her eyes.

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"Duel!" sounded the cry of two voices; one was the calm tone of James Maverick while the other was the eerie rasp of Deathless. With practiced ease, they both drew their starting five cards before Deathless proclaimed, "Age before beauty if you don't mind."

James gave an unconcerned shrug when Deathless drew for his first turn. With an exaggerated slowness that belied the ability that James had seen previously, he took a card from his hand and set it sideways on his disk with a hologram appearing on the field. "Just setting this face-down monster will be my turn."

With a slight tilt of his head, James drew. In his head, James was reviewing his strategy. _I'd better be careful. Only a face-down monster to start could mean he either had a bad starting hand or that he's decided to hide his strategy for now. Hmm, I only have one monster in my hand to start, but I'll admit it's a good one. Setting these cards down would be a good idea also. Alright guys, time to see if you're ready for parole._

"I'll start off my turn by summoning the Mad Archfiend (1800/0) in Attack Mode," James declared as he calmly set the card in his tray. When nothing happened for a few seconds, Deathless frowned.

"Your disk isn't saying that's an illegal card or an illegal move, so why isn't the monster appearing yet?" he demanded with a huff.

James gave a knowing smirk as he answered, "Because I haven't summoned him yet."

Deathless crossed his arms with a scowl on his face as he retorted, "You declared that you were starting your turn by summoning that monster and placed the card in the tray, so therefore you did summon it."

James' smirk only got wider as he raised his empty left hand above his head. Taking on a look of concentration, he started chanting under his breath as a small orb of crackling dark energy formed in his upheld palm. With a final cry on the last syllable of the chant, James bent over and slammed the orb into the ground. In front of him appeared a dark, swirling gateway from which a demonic form emerged. Its red hair was wild and unkempt while its face was hidden by shadows. In place of most of its chest, it had a massive fanged orifice with a skull floating right in the middle. Most of the visible flesh was withered and skeletal while the little armor it was wearing around its shoulders had a pair of animalistic skulls protruding from it.

James stood straight up and expressed his usual calmness as his monster cackled evilly. He groaned at the cackling as he set three cards in his hand face-down on the field before commanding his monster, "Mad Archfiend, I order you to attack his monster with Skull Scream!"

More cackling could be heard as the hollow eyes of the skull in the Mad Archfiend's chest lit up. The skull's jaw opened up and let out a spine-tingling howl, generating shockwaves that shot toward Deathless' monster. When the monster was revealed and the shockwaves dissipated against it harmlessly, James merely blinked. It was a vaguely humanoid monster wearing mostly white armor. At the few places where you could see its flesh, it was even more withered than the Mad Archfiend. Two large, green gems covered most of the back of its hands.

"That, my lowly opponent, is a Ghost Guardna (0/1900). It looks like it had a defense that was just a little too high for your Mad Archfiend. Oh well, maybe next time," Deathless drawled insultingly as James' life points dropped to 7900. "And while I may have been taken aback by you summoning your monster yourself, a trick like that won't win you this duel."

"There's no trick about it. My disk is specially programmed to allow me to handle most of my monster summoning and effects of my magic and trap cards personally. It's a lot more fun for me than to do like other duelists and just stand there. Anyway, it's your move," James explained in a cool tone.

With a scowl plastered to his face, Deathless drew. Glancing at the card, he sneered and slammed it onto his disk tray, rasping, "I summon the Dark Crusader!" (1600/200)

A pool of darkness spread out next to Dead Guardna. Out of the pool emerged a human-shaped silhouette. The shadows fell away from the figure, revealing its black leather and armor outfit and tattered red cape. Its red hair was as wild as the Mad Archfiend's while it wore a skull mask…at least, James wondered if it was a mask as he couldn't tell. To complete its look, it carried a black metal broadsword with a hilt made of bones. It hefted the weapon in one hand easily and pointed it at Mad Archfiend, who took an offensive stance and motioned for Dark Crusader to bring it.

"He's not just another pretty face. His effect makes him very powerful," Deathless wheezed through a smirk. "I can send Dark monsters from my hand to the graveyard to grant him 400 ATK for each soul thrown away. These two monsters here will do just nicely."

He plucked two cards from his hand and tossed them in his graveyard slot as if they didn't matter to him at all. James frowned when he saw this treatment as a black glow enveloped Dark Crusader. (2400/200)

"So the monsters you sent to your graveyard were nothing but fodder for your monster's effect, huh? How pathetic."

"Say what you will of me, Legion, I don't care. I've lived since before King Henry the First and I'll be alive for a long time to come. When I beat the Reaper of Souls, I overcame Death itself and became immortal. Do you want to know what I've been doing with my unending life?" Chuckled Deathless.

"I get the feeling that you're going to tell me anyway," James' replied as he crossed his arms stoically.

Deathless chuckled again, "Heh, smart boy. After I gained my immortality, I participated in every war I came across. It never mattered to me whose I was fighting for or why either side was fighting, the only reason I'd fight in a war is so I can kill people without getting caught."

James' crossed arms flexed for a moment, his frown deepening into a full-blown scowl, "You entered into wars just so you could kill people without having to be tried for murder. Killing for killing's sake is atrocious, you heartless, sadistic son of a bitch!"

Now Deathless was outright laughing, "That's right, young Legion. I kill for the sake of killing and I enjoy it thoroughly. Nothing's more exciting than taking the last glimmer of life from someone with your own two hands. When I deliver this deck to my master and he unleashes the Duel Spirit you've tried to seal away; I'll be allowed to kill unimpeded. My ultimate dream."

James uncrossed his arms and gave Deathless a look that few have seen and those that have, fear it. In a tone that could have frozen Hell over, only four words left his mouth, "Are you done yet?"

Deathless blinked a few times, and then coughed, "Not yet. Dark Crusader, attack his Mad Archfiend with Blade of Slaughter!"

The black suited monster cackled madly as it lifted its sword effortlessly and rushed the skeletal demon. James reached his left hand over and hit a button on his disk. One of the three cards he had set previously flipped up, revealing the image of Dark King of the Abyss confronting Dark Ruler Ha Des with a lit bomb in his hands.

"Your attack triggered my trap, it's called Hate Buster. I'm only going to explain this once, so listen up. I can only activate this trap when you declare a face-up, Fiend-type monster I control an attack target. Then your attacking monster and the monster you selected are both destroyed and you take damage equal to your monster's original ATK."

Dark Crusader slid to a stop as Mad Archfiend laughed insanely while it reached behind its back and pulled out a lit bomb. It went off with an explosion that could be heard several blocks away and both monsters with annihilated. Dark Crusader's sword, which didn't vanish with its master, was flung towards Deathless with tremendous force. He didn't even have time to react as the black blade plunged deep into his torso.

********************************************************

Maev opened her eyes to see Sharona's face only a few inches away from her own. She did her best not to put a hand on Sharona and shove her away. Instead, she settled to just glare at her and say, "Don't get so close to me without me knowing. If I had thought you were some perverted guy, I'd have leveled you easily before I'd know it was you."

Sharona's eyes widened and she backed up a couple steps. Maev mentally smirked at this reaction. She waved her hand in a dismissing gesture and was about to say something when she heard, "Hey you two, Laird and Aaron! Would it be all right if I took up some of Maev's time with a duel?"

Maev's eyes widened in a "What the hell!?" kind of way. This surprise quickly gave way to anger as she made a fist and clenched her teeth. To anyone looking at her, it might seem she was about to become She-Hulk.

Laird and Aaron look away from the deck when they hear Sharona's question, then they looked at each other in worry when they saw Maev angry. Maev's temper was legendary at school, earning her the nickname "Golden Spitfire". It wasn't that she was a violent person or anything because everyone at school knew that she was usually very hard to anger. She just found certain people a lot harder to deal with and erupted when they got her going.

Sharona caught the worrying looks of the boys while not really paying any attention to Maev's anger. When they didn't respond fast enough for her, she snapped, "Am I going to get an answer from you or what?"

Laird nervously pointed to Maev and stuttered, "I think…having a duel with you is up to her."

Turning her head to face Maev, Sharona got nervous when she saw Maev in a noticeably angry mood. _I'm in trouble now. For me to forget her nickname, Golden Spitfire, is definitely going to come back and bite me. Any bully that's picked a fight with her knows that her current deck can go from strong to deadly when she gets mad…I'm screwed._

"When you make a challenge to someone, you don't do make it to her friends. I accept your challenge, Sharona. Get your disk and deck ready because I'm stomping you flat right here, right now, "Maev's accent made her growling voice that much harder.

With a squeak of fear, Sharona reached down a picked up a duffel bag by her feet she apparently had set down so she could sneak up on Maev. Quickly opening it, she reached in and pulled out a golden version of the common duel disk covered in various jewels. Aaron and Laird took one look at it and groaned. They knew of only two ways to get that kind of disk, either by winning a tournament higher than regional or by custom order.

_Considering this is Sharona we're talking about, it's a custom order model, which means it cost more than James' Corvette,_ thought Aaron with a grimace. _If seeing other duelists with a custom order "Jewel Disk" is any indication,__ Maev's got her work cut out for her. Since most duelists rich enough to buy that kind of disk usually run what is commonly called the "Spoiled Brat's Deck". That's the most annoying kind of Cookie Cutter deck, since it contains nothing but overpowered, expensive rare cards._

Laird was having thoughts along the same lines. _A custom order disk…I keep forgetting she's from a rich family with how she cute acts. I'm interested in how a duel between her and the "Golden Spitfire"__ will go. I know from personal experience that Maev's deck can hit hard and fast. As long as Aaron and I can keep Maev from murdering Sharona, I don't think things will be too bad._

While those two were thinking to themselves, Sharona slid on her disk and pulled a deck box out of her duffel. Maev had set her deck in its slot and activated her disk. Sharona followed suit and soon, people who had stopped to watch the spectacle of the group surrounded them in anticipation for a duel.

*****************************************************************

The smoke from the explosion cleared revealing James, stony-faced as usual. A clatter of metal was heard as Deathless pulled his monster's sword from his chest. His life points now read 6400 as he took a card from his hand and set it. Glaring at James, he seethed, "I'll get you for that stunt you just pulled. I can't die, but I can still feel pain and getting a sword through the chest hurts as much now as it did when I fought for Attila the Hun."

James blinked at that, "Attila the Hun? He ruled most of Europe and Asia in the mid 400's…Just how old are you?"

Deathless pondered that question for a moment before saying, "To be honest, I have forgotten. I think Attila was my first ruler, around the time I became immortal. Oh well, doesn't matter. My turn's over for now."

James drew his next card silently. Suddenly, Deathless rasped as he activated his face-down card, "Your deck is finished now. I activate the dreaded Crush Card Virus!"

Dead Guardna burst into a cloud of noxious looking black spores as Deathless continued talking, "I have to tribute one Dark monster on my field with 1000 ATK or less, but it's definitely worth it. Now all monsters on your side of the field, in your hand, and what you draw with 1500 ATK or more are destroyed. Since you don't have any monsters on the field, show me your hand."

James turned his hand around, after he set the card he just drew into it, without batting an eye. In his hand was a monster called Imprisoned Queen Archfiend (2600/1700) and two spell cards called Falling Down and Pandemonium. He calmly took his only monster and placed her in the graveyard. Just as calmly, he activated one of his remaining face-down cards, "I activate Archfiend's Roar. By paying 500 life points, I can bring back one Archfiend monster from my graveyard for this turn only. Activating that virus card's going to cost you, revive Imprisoned Queen Archfiend!"

James' life points dropped to 7400 as he created a larger sphere of dark energy than the one he used to summon the Mad Archfiend. Slamming that into the ground caused an intense shaking as a huge portal opened on the ground and a vaguely feminine form pulled itself out. Standing over twenty feet tall; with a violet body, black bat-like wings, and chains attached to her wrists and ankles, the Imprisoned Queen Archfiend certainly deserved the title. Deathless was left gaping at the gigantic demon, who turned her attention to the man in front of her.

"Queen of the Archfiends, I humbly request that you smite this man with Merciless Hell Flames!" intoned James in a beseeching manner.

She rubbed her chin for a few moments before she smiled both crazily and scarily. Pulling one hand back, black flames filled her palm and she drove it right into Deathless. His life points plummeted to 3800 as he screamed in agony. The flames stopped as soon as she took her hand away and it looked like Deathless was still standing, barely. He seemed on the verge of collapse though.

"Before I end my turn, let's change venues for right now. I play a Field magic card, take us to Pandemonium!"

The results of the Field card were dramatic. Every building in sight vanished and the sky turned an unsettling red. What seemed to be an altar of some kind rose up in between the two duelists, with them standing on top of some yellow structure made of bones. Pillars and ruins made of the same stuff could be seen in the distance. Overall, it would have had a very negative impact on most duelists. With a shrug of his shoulders, James said, "I end my turn."

The Imprisoned Queen Archfiend shattered to pixels, leaving Deathless baffled, "What the heck just happened to your monster?"

James calmly explained while he took his deck from its slot. "Archfiend's Roar will bring back any Archfiend in my graveyard when I pay 500 life points to activate it; however, the summoned monster is destroyed at the end of the turn. Now normally that's a bad thing, but because I had Pandemonium active, I get one Archfiend monster from my deck when one is destroyed outside of battle. The only condition is that the Archfiend has to have fewer level stars. So I choose this, my Mist Archfiend (2400/0)!"

Finding the monster, he showed it to Deathless and added it to his hand. After shuffling for a moment, he set it back in its slot.

"It's about time, damn brat. I'll pay you back with interest for what you just did. My turn, draw!"

*************************************************************

Maev and Sharona locked eyes as they turned their disks on and shouted, "DUEL!"

Drawing their starting hand, Sharona said seemingly putting on a brave front, "I'll be a good sport and let you go first. After all, I want this to be a good fight so I'll feel like I've earned it when I claim my prize."

Maev reached her hand over to draw when Sharona said that she could have the first turn, but paused when Sharona said 'prize', "A prize? You didn't say anything about a prize for winning."

Sharona was taken aback by this, "What? Didn't I say that I wanted to have lunch with you?"

Maev gave her a blank stare, "Yeah, you said you wanted to take me to lunch, but what does that have to…That's the prize you mentioned. If I lose, then I'll have to go to lunch with you, right?"

Sharona smiled, "Yep, you got it right on the head. We could even make it a date!"

Maev smacked her forehead and held her hand there, _Damn it. Don't tell me she still has that stupid crush on me. Then again, I shouldn't be surprised considering the fact that she told the entire school that she's bisexual on the first day. Why'd it have to be me who she has a crush on, of all people?_

"Alright Sharona, if you want a date with me if you win, then I get something if I win."

"Sure, anything I can do for you, Golden-eye Cutie." Sharona giggled.

"If I win, then you leave me alone about this crush of yours. It doesn't matter what gender a person is attracted to, trying to force your feelings onto someone else is wrong."

"That condition's fine with me. Get this duel started already."

"In that case, draw!" exclaimed Maev as she swiped a card from the top of her deck. She immediately took a card from her hand and said, "Here's how to start a duel, I summon my Royal Magical Library (0/2000)."

Out of nowhere, several towering shelves full of books sprung up around Maev. Many people in the crowd could be heard calling her crazy for summoning a monster with 0 ATK in attack position. She merely grinned as she took three cards in her hand and declared, "I got really lucky here because I have all three copies I have of the continuous magic card, 7. Now to activate them, go!"

Sliding the three cards into her disk, holograms of the cards appeared. Three rolling slot wheels materialized above the card holograms. Eventually, the wheels came to a stop and each of them had a red seven on them. When the three sevens lined up, the word "Jackpot" written in humongous, golden letters flashed in front of the wheels and confetti fell from out of nowhere.

"When I have all three copies of 7 on the field, I get to draw three cards. Then the 7s are destroyed which means that they are sent to the graveyard and their other effect activates, granting me 700 life points for each one," Maev explained as she drew her cards and the slot wheels shattered. Her life point counter jumped from 8000 to 10100 and three glowing books fell down from the library surrounding her to hover in front of her. She slowly touched each of them while saying, "And here's my Library's effect. When either my opponent or I activate a magic card, my Royal Magical Library here gains one spell counter to a maximum of three counters. Then I can remove those three counters to draw a card."

As she touched each book, they vanished. Smiling a little, she drew for her monster's effect. Now holding the same amount of cards as she started her turn with, she took two and announced, "Here's a card that's been highly used ever since it came out, I activate Double Summon and use its effect to bring out my Skull-Mark Ladybug!"

The familiar magic card appeared on the field for a moment as an insect with a blue carapace with white skull and crossbones on it. Maev frowned at her monster, "I guess I need to pay more attention to my own cards. Whoever designed the Skull-Mark Ladybug didn't know his entomology; it's not a ladybug, it's a tick with six legs. Whatever, I activate Multiplication of Ants. By offering up one insect monster I control as a tribute, I get two Army Ant Tokens with the following stats; Insect-type, Earth Attribute, 4 level stars, 500 ATK, 1200 DEF."

The misnamed Skull-Mark Ladybug vanished into pixels and two giant green ants took its place. She smiled as she glowed with a green aura and said, "That's my Ladybug's effect. When it's sent to the graveyard, I gain one thousand life points."

Her life points went up to 11100 as she took two more cards from her hand, "Here's where the real strength of my deck comes in. Activate the magic of the Black Magic Ritual card. I have to tribute at least eight level stars worth of monsters, and then I get to summon a very powerful monster. So, even though they can't be used as tributes for tribute summons, they can still be used for special summons. I offer my Army Ant Tokens for the ritual."

A magnificent altar and pair of braziers materialized underneath the tokens. The pair of tokens disappeared into the smoke coming from the braziers, which then gathered into one spot above the altar. In a blast of magic, both the smoke and the altar were blown away. In its place was a powerful looking man with blue skin, black hair, black leather full-body suit and fancy black head-dress. In his right hand, he held an elaborate staff.

"Behold the Magician of Black Chaos (2800/2600). Quite a strong monster to get out on my first turn, wouldn't you say? Oh, before I forget…"

Three more books floated down to her and just like the previous ones, they vanished once she touched them. Drawing a card from her deck, she took it and the remaining one in her hand and set them on the field. Two face-down holograms appeared behind the Magician of Black Chaos and Maev signaled the end of her turn.

Sharona tilted her head at the Magician, who stared right back at her. Shuddering a bit, she drew her card then grinned, "It's time to show you the Voodoo that I do so well. Go, the continuous magic card Call of the Mummy!"

The card hologram, depicting a group of decaying mummies emerging from their coffins, materialized onto her field. She held up a card as she giggled, "If I don't control any monsters, I can use my magic card to special summon one Zombie-type monster from my hand. So how about I introduce you to my cute little Mezuki (1700/800)?

Mist flowed out of the Call of the Mummy card, forming into a muscular man with a horse's head and legs carrying a Poleax. It flicked its limbs a bit to loosen itself up before twirling its axe with ease. Magician of Black Chaos stared at it for a moment before rapidly twirling his own staff as if in contest with the opponent's monster. Sharona frowned as she declared, "Since that was a special summon, I'll use my normal summon to set a monster face-down."

An evil gleam flicked through her eyes as she played her next card, "My face-down monster's not going to stay with me for very long. Your Magician is going to help me with a little magic act; it's just too bad that it'll be his last. I activate Mystic Box."

Two boxes covered in question marks and full of holes for something to go through it covered both Sharona's face-down monster and the Magician of Black Chaos. Out of nowhere appear several swords around the box that sat on Sharona's field and slid right into the holes on the box. Maev had seen a Spellcaster deck that James had made use that card once and she knew exactly what she was going to see when the boxes opened. Sure enough, the box on Sharona's field held a skewered Magician of Black Chaos, who gave Maev a sorrowful look before it shattered, while Sharona's face-down monster popped onto Maev's field.

Sharona giggled again as she announced, "Go Mezuki, attack the face-down I just gave her with your Underworld Axe Crash!"

With a brief nod, it charged and the hologram of its target flipped face-up, showing a Morphing Jar. Mezuki's polearm slammed into it, shattering it to pieces. Sharona slid her remaining cards into her graveyard with a nasty grin then both duelists drew five cards. All of a sudden, Sharona's graveyard glowed with a black aura as two cards slid out of it.

"This is it Maev. Your about to face the horrors that lurk in my deck. Too bad you can't get ready for these guys. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!"

**************************************************

Dang it. It's certainly taking a lot longer to make these chapters than I'd like. Oh well, I'm getting this done and that's not going to change. This is a step for me in becoming a real writer, so through Hell and High Water, this story will continue!


	5. Chapter 4

I'm always looking for new suggestions and ideas for my fanfiction. If you want to submit some, then just PM me about it. Open minds are a precious commodity these days, so keep one with you at all times. Also, this fic can get very dark at times because of all the different people, personalities and beliefs. It's called Way of the World for a reason.

Chapter 4

* * *

Maev stared at the dark aura surrounding Sharona's graveyard as feelings of dread washed over her. She shuddered, doing her best to try and keep any revulsion she felt down so she could focus on the duel. _This feeling, I always hate feelings of decay. I doubt even 10 showers will make me feel clean after this._

The dark aura around Sharona's graveyard started to solidify and expand. Falling off the disk, it split into two shadows as it moved onto the field. These shadows swelled as they moved until they simply seemed to explode upward. When this stopped, there stood two creatures that seemed made almost completely out of shadows. One was about 8-feet tall with one muscled violet arm, while the other was probably about 20-feet tall with two such arms.

"Well my Golden-eye Cutie, how do you like my Fear from the Dark (1700/1500) and Despair from the Dark (2800/3000)? Don't worry, they can be quite friendly once you get to know them, like I'm sure that they're just _dying_ to get to know you."

Many people in the crowd groaned at the lame attempt at a joke. Laird and Aaron, however, shared a quick glance with each other and started worrying about Maev. They had swiftly figured out that Sharona used a Zombie deck and they knew that would put a bit of a strain on Maev. After all, they rarely brought it up and it was kinda easy to forget, but Maev could feel things that most people couldn't and Zombie monsters feel like death to her. Indeed, it was easy to see Maev was struggling not to throw up. Even Sharona took one look at her and asked, "Are you alright? Do you need to lie down for a few minutes?"

Maev fought down her disgust for the Zombies and replied, "That would count as a forfeit and I'd lose by default, so I don't think so. It'll take more than a bunch of living dead to keep me from dueling. Finish your move already!"

Sharona tilted her head and gave her opponent a look, "If you say so, then I will. Fear from the Dark, tear down her Library with Terror Rush!"

The smaller shadow held up its arm and rushed at the towering shelves. It didn't get very far before a massive gate with a sign saying "No Entry" on it shot up between the two duelists. Fear from the Dark backed up and did some equivalent to kneeling, seeing as it was a shadow. Both Mezuki and Despair from the Dark quickly followed suit and Sharona was left baffled until she got a good look at Maev's field. One of Maev's face-down cards had flipped up, a trap card called No Entry.

"Those face-down cards were there for a reason. My trap card, No Entry, shifts all monsters in Attack Position to Defense Position. A very handy defensive card if you ask me."

Sharona frowned as she took a card from her hand and declared, "Well, my Battle Phase is over, so I'll use my second Main Phase to activate something I got from my Morphing Jar. Meet the Field card that'll be in your nightmares for a week, Zombie World!"

A vast field of bones replaced the Mall's floor, with rotting trees and plants scattered all across it. Several different Zombie monsters could be seen in the distance and Sharona's monsters looked at their surroundings with approval. What was worse for Maev was her Royal Magical Library started to rot and decay, the many shelves seemed like it was going to fall apart at any time. Maev could only stare in horror at the sight while several people in the crowd had to leave before they threw-up.

"How do you like it? The effect of Zombie World, I mean. While it's on the field, all monsters on the field and in the graveyard become Zombie-type and the only monsters that can be Tribute Summoned are Zombies."

Sharona was apparently completely unaffected by her own field, as she spoke normally, "My turn's done for now. Show me what you've got."

Maev hurriedly drew her card, then reached her hand out to touch the three books that flew down for her, but she quickly recoiled. The books looked like they were covered in rotting flesh. Having to fight down her revulsion again, Maev thought while cringing as she forced herself to touch the books, _Ugh...this duel's not good for my senses. That's it! I'm not going to duel any more Zombie users for a month._

Shuddering, she drew a card; giving her a hand of seven. She took one glance at her hand before activating her remaining face-down card. It's image was of a cloaked woman with energy cackling around her forehead.

"Here's a very rare draw card, the powerful Sixth Sense! I have to select two numbers between 1 and 6. One die is rolled and if it lands on one of the numbers I chose, then I draw that many cards. The downside is if it lands on a different number, then I send that many cards from the top of my deck to the graveyard. It's a risk sure, but that never stopped Joey Wheeler from using dice cards."

Aaron smacked his forehead at her mentioning Joey. Of the legendary duelists, Aaron knew how much Maev respected Joey over all the others.

_As a matter of fact, _Aaron thought with a sigh, _She respects Joey as much as she dislikes Kaiba. Mention Kaiba's name in front of her and she flips out. Ask her about Joey and she could tell you his life story. That habit is worse than mine...most of the time._

Maev closed her eyes as a big golden die appeared above the field. The crowd focused solely on her while she took several deep breaths. In her mind, she could see a card spin repeatedly. She mentally reached for it and when she caught it, it was blank expect for one word.

_It says even. I know what that means._

"The numbers I choose are 4 and 6!" The golden die dropped from where it was floating, hitting the ground with a resonding thump before bouncing up again. It repeated this three more times before it came to a stop. Everyone did their best to see the result, when Maev shouted, "It's a four! Alright, lucky me!"

Swiftly drawing four cards from the top of her deck, she looked over her hand of now eleven cards.

* * *

Deathless drew his card, giving him a total of three. Tucking it into his hand, he snapped his fingers and a black flame erupted on his field. A zombie-like form emerged from the flame, a balding samurai with several broken arrows sticking out of his armor. His dead eyes stared directly at James as he unsheathed two katana from their scabbards on his belt.

James stared back while he spoke, "The Immortal Bushi, a level three Dark Warrior. His effect allows him to come back from the graveyard during your Standby phase if you have no monsters on the field and the only monsters in your graveyard are Warriors. Not a bad choice from what I've seen over your deck."

Deathless grinned, "You haven't seen anything yet. Time to get serious, young Legion, as I shall bring out one of the strongest monsters this deck can produce. First, I'll activate the continous magic card, Card of Safe Return."

It materialized on the field, depicting a crawling man with three cards floating above him. Deathless took one of his remaining two cards and said, "It won't activate yet, but it will when I play this card. I summon my Junk Synchron to the field."

In a flash, a child-sized humanoid figure materialized on the field. He appeared to be mechanical with orange gloves, orange boots, an orange chest plate and an orange conducter's hat. Around his neck was a white scarf while he carried a small engine on his back. James regarded him calmly, examining him like he would a rarity.

"A tuner monster, huh? I wouldn't have expected you to have one since they are so hard to use right. Not to mention the fact that Synchro monsters themselves are complex creatures. To bring out their true power is not something that just anyone can do."

Deathless harrumphed, "You're too young to be telling me what to do, boy. What does it matter that I have tuner and synchro monsters? They still serve me just the same. Now let me finish this."

James motioned for him to continue, so Deathless did, "Anyway, though I'm positive you already know this, my Junk Synchron's effect activates."

James interrupted, "Yeah, I know. When he is normal summoned, you can select a level two or lower monster from your graveyard and special summon it, but its effect is negated and it's in Defense position."

Deathless was livid, "EXCUSE ME! WHOSE CARDS ARE THESE!? I MAY BE IMMORTAL, BUT I DON'T HAVE LIMITLESS PATIENCE!"

James held up his hands in a backing off gesture and Deathless calmed down some.

"As I was saying, my monster's effect activates so I'll select the other monster I discarded for my Dark Crusader's effect. Allow me to introduce you to my Vengeful Shinobi (400/800)!"

A ninja in a grey uniform with metal armguards and black wrappings on its legs emerged onto the field in a puff of smoke. He kneeled in front of Deathless with his arms crossed while the Card of Safe Return glowed.

"Card of Safe Return allows a player to draw a card when a monster is special summoned from their graveyard. A good card to combo with Junk Synchron, "James commented casually. Deathless drew for Card of Safe Return's effect while saying nothing to the relaxed James.

Shaking his head to clear it, Deathless declared, "Since you're such a know-it-all, Legion, then you should know what I'm about to do. I tune my level three Immortal Bushi and my level two Vengeful Shinobi to my level three Junk Synchron."

Junk Synchron pulled a cord on his chest plate and the engine on his back started revving up. He glowed brightly for a moment before changing into three destinct lights. Each light quickly formed a circle that surrounded the two other monsters. As the monsters entered the circles, they became outlined and then faded away, leaving five balls of light.

"Forgotten and discarded souls shall gather to become a dark force. Shatter the bonds that hold death at bay! Synchro Summon!"

The five lights aligned themselves in a vertical line inside the three circles. An immense pillar of light came out of the sky and engulfed the five lights within the circles, striking the ground with great force. When the pillar and circles faded away, a huge human-shaped machine was standing there. Covered in dull yellow plates, it looked like it could crush James's house just by letting a hand fall on it.

Deathless was laughing like a lunatic, "How's this, young Legion? How do you like my Colossal Fighter (2800/1000)? Impressive, right?"

James was as calm as usual when he responded, "Colossal Fighter; a level eight Dark Warrior who gains 100 ATK for every Warrior in both players' graveyards. For a monster of that level, it's par for the course, but I've faced far worse."

That snapped Deathless out of his laughter as effectively as being slapped in the face, but then he sneered, "Unless that last card on your field can stop a direct attack, then the 500 extra ATK my monster gets from my graveyard is going to flatten you!" (3300/1000)

"And that should mean what to me? As long as I have life points, I can continue to duel. Go right ahead and attack me, "came James' indifferent reply.

"If you have a death wish, then I'll be more than happy to accomodate you, "Deathless declared with great glee. "Colossal Fighter, attack directly with Earth-Shattering Knuckles!"

The Massive Warrior pulled back its right fist and flung it forward with more force than a wreaking ball. When it hit James full on, Deathless howled with laughter.

"How's that, young Legion!? Still indifferent to my monster now!?"

His laughter continued unabated until he noticed that his monster was struggling against something. With wide eyes and an open mouth, he was stunned when he looked away from his monster long enough to see James holding the fist at bay. Granted, he was straining his arms, gritting his teech, and his feet were sliding backwards, but he wasn't flattened like Deathless thought he would be. Eventually, the Colossal Fighter stopped its attack and James' arms fell limp by his sides. Gasping for breath because of the effort, James' body slightly sagged as he recovered. His life point gauge dropped sharply from 7400 to 4100.

"I...think that...was the...strongest...attack...I've ever...blocked...with my...bare hands. Mental note, never...do that...again."

Deathless snapped out of his staring at James' declaration. Shaking his head for a second, he looked right at James and raged, "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO!? NO HUMAN COULD HAVE BLOCKED A HIT LIKE THAT! IT'S PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE!!"

"I guess...that means...I'm not...completely...human, "James was regaining his breath as he talked. "In order for...me to con...control so many...Duel Spirits, I have t...to be strong....enough to handle...them. Most of the...Malevolent ones are...incredibly powerful and most people...are weak enough...to be influenced...by them."

Deathless was having a hard time letting this information sink in. Just standing there, he thought, _This boy, not even out of high school, has the power to match most Duel Spirits in battle? That's impossible, it just has to be. My master is well over twice this boy's age, yet he doesn't have the power to fight Duel Spirits. He can control even the strongest ones with ease, but not fight them._

"Just how powerful are you, Legion? What is the limit of your power?" Deathless breathed almost inaudiably.

James had completely recovered his breath by now. Stretching out a bit, he commented, "To be honest, your average person could probably compete evenly with Duel Spirits whose cards have a base ATK 500 and 800 in pure strength. Depending on the Type of the spirit, of course. Then again, I've never seen such a situation come up unless it involved me somehow."

Overcoming his shock and surprise, Deathless snapped, "If that's the case, then just how strong are you?"

* * *

Maev held up two cards in her right hand. Bringing both to her disk, she slipped one into her graveyard and declared, while setting the second one in her tray, "By discarding one card from my hand, I can special summon The Tricky!" (2000/1200)

A yellow and black suited jester with a question mark on its face and chest appeared in a puff of multi-colored smoke. The only thing that indicated that it became a Zombie monster because of Zombie World was its color faded to various shades of grey. Maev shivered as feelings of death emanated from the monster she summoned. Her hand slightly shook as she loaded another card into her disk.

"Now that he's on the field, I can activate this, Tricky Spell 4! I send The Tricky to the graveyard, then special summon as many Tricky Tokens in Defense Position as my opponent has monsters on their side of the field."

The Tricky flashed for a second before splitting into three copies of itself. Maev gulped as she partially struggled to continue as her shivering worsened, "Fo-for future ref-reference, Tricky To-tokens have th-the exact s-s-same stats as The Tr-tricky itself."

Pausing to take a deep breath and stop shivering, Maev started rubbing her arms like she was cold. Laird and Aaron knew what was happening to her; her body was starting to react physically to what she felt mentally. They had only seen it happen a few times before, but they remember what they did the last time. Pushing through the crowd to get to her, Aaron took off his jacket and draped it on Maev's shoulders. Most of the crowd looked on in confusion while Sharona began to get concerned.

"Hey, what's wrong with Golden-eye Cutie? Why is she acting like it's cold?"

Laird leveled a gaze at Sharona and said, "She's not acting. Her body is reacting to the deathly cold feelings of the zombies on the field."

Sharona blinked in confusion, "Deathly cold feelings? I don't feel anything from my zombies...they're suppose to be holograms, right?"

Laird sighed, as he just knew that most of the people in the crowd would think he was crazy for the explanation, "For most people, yes, they don't feel real. Maev, however, has an almost supernatural empathy for both living and nonliving things. Someone who studied her because of this, said that it was almost, but not quite, Extra Sensory Perception. This puts her into some harsh situations, because even though she knows that they aren't real, they still feel real and her body reacts as such. She's been getting the hang of controlling it, but it can overwhelm her at times."

Hearing this, Maev spoke up with her accent slightly making her voice a bit shakier, "I-I c-can s-s-still d-duel. Jus-s-st g-give me a-a-a m-m-mom-ment."

Slowly getting to her feet, she took off her duel disk so she could slide her hands into Aaron's jacket. It was way too big for her, but it made her warmer so she didn't care about the size. Adjusting the straps a bit so they could fit over the jacket's sleeves, she fit her disk back onto her left arm. Holding up her eight cards, she declared in a more regular voice, "My turn continues. I activate the ritual magic card, Black Luster Ritual."

An altar with a shield and a pair of crossed sabers above it materialized onto the field.

"This ritual requires at least eight levels worth of monsters so I offer two of my Tricky Tokens and summon the legendary Black Luster Soldier (3000/2500)!"

Two of the greyed jesters floated onto the alter and got engulfed in a flash of intense light. When the light subsided, a larger than normal human wearing dark colored armor stepped in front of Maev. He was carrying the shield and a saber from the ritual altar. The atmosphere of Zombie World almost immediately beset him to turn him into a Zombie; his armor became pitted, his shield became chipped and his saber became rusty. What could be seen of his face turned sickly and sallow.

"But wait, there's more! Here's another ritual magic card, White Dragon Ritual!" A circle of runes surrounded the last Tricky token as she continued, "This one requires only a minimum of four levels, so I offer this last token for Tribute to summon the Paladin of White Dragon (1900/1200)!"

The circle of runes turned into a pillar of light as it hid the token from view. Out of this column emerged a white and gold armored man riding a whitish-blue dragon. Just like the Black Luster Soldier before him though, the atmosphere of Zombie World immediately beset him. His armor rusted and lost its golden trim while his mount's hide turned greyish. It swooped down, landing next to the zombified Warrior with a thud. Though the chill had lessened for Maev, there were still enough Zombies that the chill was still strong. Her disgust for the decay had long since been forgotten.

Once more, three tomes fell from the Royal Magical Library for Maev to enact its effect. Not looking away from Sharona, Maev touched the tomes and drew. Placing it in her hand, she plucked a different one out and activated it. "Here's an ever useful card. I activate Graceful Dice!"

A little fairy in a pink tophat holding onto a die bigger than it was emerged from the card. It let go of the die as Maev explained, "This card will now increase the ATK of all monsters I control by 100 times the result. Regardless of the result, you are losing two monsters this turn."

* * *

James tilted his head in thought for a moment. Staring back at his opponent, he responded, "For the most part, with quite a few exceptions, I can hold my own for any length of time against spirits whose cards have a base ATK of 2200. To draw a comparison, an entrant in the world's strongest man competition could probably match against spirits whose cards have a base ATK between 1200 and 1500. Once again, we're talking brute strength here. Since most people don't have the same kinds of abilities that Duel Spirits would have, a fight between a Human and a Duel Spirit is going to be in favor of the Spirit."

Deathless mulled that over for a second. While he did that, James started reaching for his deck and annouced, "It looks like your turn is over, so if you don't mind..."

When his fingers toucheed the top card of his deck, he paused for a moment to silently ask his deck, _There is only one monster I need to make a comeback. You know which one it is, so send him to me now._

A quiet, yet powerful, voice responded to his mental command, _As you have called, so shall we respond. The fires of the Dark heed you._

With that comfirmation, he drew the card.

* * *

Sorry it's been so long since I posted a chapter. I'd gripe about why I don't really post all that much, but you don't read to hear me complain about my self. Read and Review, cause readers are the lifeblood of any author.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

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James slid the card off his deck with a grace that his opponent knew wasn't there a moment before. Without even looking at the card, James held it up for Deathless to examine because of the lingering effects of the Crush Card Virus trap. It was a level three Fiend named Dark Resonator(1300/300). A slight smile could be seen on James' face as he said, "Looks to me like I drew a monster that got around your virus. I'll set it face-down and end my turn there."

A hologram for it materialized in front of the remaining face-down card he had on the field. Deathless was baffled at how James even knew it was a monster when he hadn't looked at it. Shaking his head and wondering if his opponent had gone crazy, he drew his card to raise his hand to three. Picking one of the other two cards from his hand, he said, "I noticed the DEF of that card was 300, low enough for this monster to destroy it. I summon Nubian Guard(500/500) to the field!"

The monster that appeared looked more like a Zombie than a Warrior; a mummified man, wearing Egyptian garments and carrying an ancient spear. Colossal Fighter turned to it and seemed to give it a look of disdain.

"Nubian Guard, strike down his face-down Dark Resonator with Centurion Pole-Arm!"

With a fleetness that his current body wouldn't show, Nubian Guard sprinted across the field. The hologram flipped to reveal a squat, black-faced man with tattered-edge robes and cymbals on his back; then the mummified Warrior thrust hard with his spear. Dark Resonator reached into his robes, pulling out a tuning fork and a round-headed mallet, then struck them together. The resulting sound waves created a barrier that deflected Nubian Guard's attack and rendered Deathless speechless for a few moments. James shrugged as he decided to explain, "That's Dark Resonator's effect. Once per turn, he can't be destroyed in battle. I guess you're not getting a direct attack this turn."

Deathless growled, "Look who knows so much. Colossal Fighter, leave him defenseless! Earth Shattering Knuckle!"

Once again, the massive armored warrior swung his arm forward. What happened next surprised Deathless; Dark Resonator started laughing before the giant fist plowed right through him.

_That monster was laughing in the face of death...Did it know something that I don't? Maybe it's just crazy, like that Mad Archfiend this whelp had summoned earlier. Argh, this duel is getting on my nerves. _Deathless paused, as if he became aware of something that he knew he should have payed attention to earlier. _Thinking about it...it's almost like, as each turn passes, the endless ticking of time slowly but surely catches up to me...NO! THAT WON'T HAPPEN! I REFUSE TO LET THAT HAPPEN!_

"My turn is over, you whelp, but I will not fail my master. Not when he is so close to his ultimate goal."

Wordlessly, James drew his card and revealed it for the final turn that the virus was active. It depicted a green mug with a smiling face on it; it was called the Pot of Greed. James immediately slid it into an empty magic/trap card slot. A virtual representation of the pot popped out of the card and spat out two cards for James before vanishing. When the hologram faded, he revealed those cards for the effects of the virus. The first one was a continuous magic card called Archfiend's Oath and the other was a normal magic card called Checkmate.

After adding them to his hand, he activated the last face-down card on his field while saying, "I bet you've been wondering what this card is. Well, it's a trap called Revival Gift. In exchange for giving my opponent two Gift Fiend Tokens; which are Dark attribute, Fiend type, level 3, with 1500 ATK and DEF, I get to special summon a Tuner monster from my graveyard!"

"What, a Tuner?! When did you send a Tuner monster to your graveyard?" Deathless gasped in surprise.

"I didn't, you did. I special summon the Gift Fiend tokens to your field in defense position, while I revive Dark Resonator!"

Two kid-sized, humanoid tadpole-like creatures formed beside Nubian Guard, while the tattered robe wearing fiend popped out of a portal that James had formed with a quick spell. Then James started up another chant as he placed the only monster card in his hand on his disk. Instead of a portal opening, mist appeared out of the landscape itself and congealed into a partially whole skeletal demon colored dark blue and blood red. Except for the most of the upper body, it was still mist-like, making it look unstable.

"When Mist Archfiend (2400/0) is Normal Summoned without tribute, it's destroyed at the End Phase of that turn, but that's not going to matter when I'm through. His level is just right to bring out a Synchro monster of my own. Level 5, Mist Archfiend...Level 3, Dark Resonator...Tune, now!" James exclaimed calmly, but forcefully.

Dark Resonator once again pulled his tools out of his robe, striking the tuning fork with the mallet. This time, however, instead of the air around him warping like the barrier he had made before, he himself began to warp. Like Junk Synchron before him, Dark Resonator glowed, then split into three green lights that quickly became rune circles that engulfed the Mist Archfiend, who faded to an outline before turning into five lights himself.

"Wingbeats in the dark hold aloft an overwhelming spirit. Rise up now out of the Abyss! Synchro Summon! Take flight, Red Dragon Archfiend!" (3000/2000)

Just like when Deathless did it, a pillar of light engulfed the rings and lights and then faded away to reveal the new monster. It was a massive black and dark red dragon, easily as big as Colossal Fighter, but giving off the impression of being wider because of its huge wings.

"Before you say that he doesn't have the ATK to defeat your Colossal Fighter, remember one of the cards I have in my hand. I don't need to defeat your Fighter. I'll capture it with this equip card, Falling Down!"

James slid the card into his disk and it's hologram appeared. It depicted a man being corrupted and turned into some kind of demon. Colossal Fighter's armor began to bulge in a few places, while other places broke completely as spike-like bones emerged. Its green visor turned a sinister red and then, when the transformation was complete, he marched over to James' side of the field.

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The die struck the ground and rolled to a stop. Maev cheered as the die showed 5. Her Black Luster Soldier and Paladin of White Dragon let out a unified battle cry as they glowed with a golden aura, while her Royal Magical Library merely basked in the glow silently. (3000/2500 - 3500/3000) (1900/1200 - 2400/1700) (0/2000 - 500/2500)

"There we go! Alright boys, rend her monsters to pieces! Shockwave Slash and Lightning Lancer!"

The zombified Soldier lifted his saber and then slammed it into the ground with tremendous force, sending out a shockwave that tore across the ground before it tore apart Despair from the Dark. Paladin of White Dragon took flight on his mount and dove straight at Sharona's Fear from the Dark while his weapon cackled with electricity. His mount swooped by the shadowy Zombie, which gave the Paladin the chance to bury his weapon in Fear from the Dark's forehead. Fear from the Dark exploded, while the Paladin returned to Maev's field. With two less Zombies on the field, Maev wasn't feeling as chilly as before.

"One card to be set, " Maev took a card from her hand and set it. "Now I'll end this ridiculously long turn. Seriously, this is one of the longest turns I've ever taken."

The stats of Maev's monsters returned to normal as Sharona slid top card off of her deck. She gave her hand a quick glance, selecting a card and slamming it onto her tray.

"I summon a relatively new monster of mine, a Tuner monster known as the Plaguespreader Zombie!" (400/200)

Out of the grotesque landscape, emerged a brutishly muscular corpse with decaying skin and a skull like face. Maev's chill returned a bit, but the relatively weak power of the Zombie didn't faze her at all. Then it hit her, Sharona had said that her new monster was a Tuner. Her eyes widened at the thought and Sharona caught that.

With a smirk, Sharona began, "I see you realize what is about to happen. I tune my level four Mezuki and my level two Plaguespreader together!"

A sickening gas erupted from various places on the Tuner Zombie's body. The Zombie glowed while its gas dispersed, changing into two green lights which then orbited the humanoid horse. After revolving a few times, the lights changed into rune circles of the same color.

"Spirits at rest, awaken from your slumber and possess your new body. Spring forth from the Underworld! Synchro Summon!"

The undead guardian of the underworld faded to an outline before completely transforming into four distinct lights in the two circles. In a brilliant flash, both circles and lights were engulfed.

"Rise from your Grave, Doomkaiser Dragon!" (2400/1500)

As the flash faded, a gigantic zombified dragon could be seen floating there. It looked like a cross between a European style wyvern and Oriental style dragon. The top half was muscular and its wings were tattered, while the bottom half was completely serpentine. Shaking itself like it was adjusting its whole body, it let out a roar that didn't seem hampered by its decaying state. Maev's chill increased despite the lessened number of monsters.

Sharona smiled at her new monster as she said, "Sure, its stats can't match your Black Luster Soldier's, but it does have a very useful ability, especially if I have Zombie World in play! When my Doomkaiser Dragon is Special Summoned, I get to Special Summon one Zombie monster from my OPPONENT's graveyard!"

Radiating a sickeningly dark light, Doomkaiser Dragon spat a dark substance onto Maev's disk. After soaking into her graveyard slot, a shadowy form flew out and landed on Sharona's field. The shadowy form solidified into a tattered and pale Magician of Black Chaos. (2800/2600)

"My Magician...!" Exclaimed Maev as her chill became worse.

Taking a card from her hand, Sharona said while laughing, "Mine now and I'm going to make him stronger by giving him this, the Equip Magic card, Violet Crystal."

A cluster of, obviously, violet crystals appeared and attached itself to the front of the Magician's tattered suit. The Magician gained an aura the same color as the crystals. (2800/2600-3100/2900)

"This card may be a bit outdated, but it still gives Zombie-type monsters a 300 point boost to ATK and DEF and that's just enough to wipe out your Soldier! Attack, my monsters! Zombified Chaos Magic and Undead Ruler's Flare!"

Charging arcane energy to his staff, the now undead sorcerer released an blast of intense force that easily pierced the Black Luster Soldier's rusty armor. Doomkaiser Dragon inhaled for a few moments and then exhaled a ferocious stream of energy that obliterated the Paladin of White Dragon. Maev's life points dropped a bit to 10500 and her chill lessened a good extent even though it was her monsters that lost.

"I'll merely set one card of my remaining three down and let you have a turn, Golden-eye cutie."

Maev growled at the nickname while the face-down hologram materialized. Taking a deep breath and trying to reign in her temper, she reached toward her deck to draw.

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With Colossal Fighter and Red Dragon Archfiend staring him down, Deathless was feeling very afraid at the moment. After all, he had his Nubian Guard in attack position and his only defense was two tokens given to him by his opponent. Shaking like a leaf, he was just waiting for James to declare his attack.

"None of the cards I have in my hand will help me at this time, so I'll proceed to my Battle Phase," James stated with his usual calm. The two goliaths seemed very eager to destroy everything in front of them as James continued, "Colossal Fighter, break his Nubian Guard with Destruction Haymaker!"

The corrupted Warrior lumbered forward and then slamming its fist right on top of the mummified man. A quick flash of light and the usual sound of monster destruction were all the indication that nothing remained under the massive fist. Deathless' life points plummeted by 2800 points to an even 1000 while Colossal Fighter's ATK increased by 100 for the new Warrior in Deathless' Graveyard. As he lifted his hand and made his way back to James, it became obvious that there were cracks in Pandemonium's landscape from the impact.

James apparently didn't care as he spoke, "Red Dragon Archfiend, blow those tokens to hell...Incandescent Crimson Hell Flare!"

The Dragon growled as its throat swelled, like it was regurgitating something it had eaten. As it opened its mouth, sparks of fire flicked about for a second and then, true to its name, a torrent of crimson hellfire shot towards the helpless tokens. Screaming in pain, the tokens melted in the relentless flames. Deathless himself took a few steps back from the extreme heat. When the attack died down, Deathless' field was barren.

"Wait, only one of the tokens should have been destroyed by that attack. What did you do, whelp?" Deathless exclaimed at the sight of his empty field.

James gave him an examining look before deciding to explain, "Red Dragon Archfiend despises cowardice. If he attacks a monster in Defense position, then all monsters in that same state that you control are destroyed after Damage Calculation. This isn't one-sided either because if a monster I control doesn't attack during that turn, then they are destroyed at the End Phase. By the way, it's your move."

Deathless was now shaking as if he was in the middle of an earthquake. He stared at the two cards in his hand before giving his deck a look that showed a bottomless well of fear, despair and absolute terror. Ever so slowly, his shaking hand reached for the deck.

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I'm putting an end to this chapter. After all, it's taken me way too much time to get this much done. That's the annoying part. Anyway, I always want to know what people think of this, so reviews are most appreciated.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

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Maev drew her top card, meaning she now had four cards in her hand. She smiled a bit at her new card and then set it and her remaining hand onto her disk. One monster appeared face-down, while three cards settled into her magic and trap card zones. Giving Sharona a smirk, Maev taunted her, "That's all from me. Attack, I dare ya!"

Sharona gave her a deadpan look before drawing. Calmly taking a card from her hand, she responded, "You dared me to attack, too late to take that back. First, I play this, the magic card, Cold Wave!"

An icy wind blew through the entire field, rendering their face-down magic and traps frozen and coating the empty slots in ice. Most of the audience shivered from the holographic chill while Maev's eyes widened in shock. Sharona now sported a smirk of her own, "Judging from your wide eyes, I'll say that you know what Cold Wave does. For the members of the audience that doesn't know, it prevents both me and her from setting or activating magic and trap cards until the end of her turn. So you, Maev, are about to take a big hit to your life points. Because not only am I going to summon a monster from my hand, but because of a monster in my graveyard, I'll get to summon from there too. I remove the Mezuki in my graveyard to special summon Despair from the Dark!"

Mezuki's card slid out of the graveyard, which Sharona slid into a pocket on her sundress, as a specter of the undead guardian appeared on the field for a short moment before being engulfed in a shadow that became the massive Despair from the Dark. Its ATK and DEF scores floated above it for a few seconds as Sharona took another card and played it. In a small flash, a red-skinned Oni carrying a gourd with a Kanji on it emerged.

"Say hello to my Shutendoji (1500/800). He's useful for a deck like mine because he has two nifty effects. I choose to activate one of them now; once per turn, I can take one Zombie I own that is removed from play and place it on the top of my deck. So my Mezuki gets recycled and I can summon him next turn." Shutendoji held his gourd up and chanted something, causing the top of her deck to glow, showing the return of Mezuki.

"So, I now have four monsters on the field and I get the feeling that your face-down monster has squat for defense. Shutendoji, lead the charge with your Oni's Rage!"

The red-skinned Oni let out a battle cry as it rushed the face-down monster. It flipped over to reveal a familiar blue-gray jar with its single eye and cackling smile before it was shattered by the rabid beating from the muscular demon.

"A Morphing Jar (700/600)!? When did you get one of those?" Sharona asked with a bit of shock in her voice as both duelists reloaded their hands.

Maev frowned before responding, "I've had one in this deck for a while. It just always seems to hit the bottom of my deck. With a deck that focuses on Ritual Summoning, you need lots of draw power to keep up a decent hand. Now, my question to you is; why does it matter how, why, or when I got a Morphing Jar? Don't tell me that you've been stalking me."

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Deathless made his draw with shaking hands and then heaved with relief when he saw what his draw was. With more confidence, he snapped his fingers and The Immortal Bushi erupted onto the field in a black blaze. He, apparently, forgot that he had Card of Safe Return because he was surprised when he saw it and the top card of his deck glow. Adding the new card to his hand, he selected a different one and placed it next to his only monster.

"I summon and activate the effect of the Armageddon Knight(1400/1200)!" A rusty armored man with wild, black hair and a tattered cloak appeared out of a pool of darkness, carrying an equally rusted sword. "When it is summoned in any way, I get to send one Dark monster from my deck to the graveyard. So, I choose to send Necro Gardna (600/1300)."

A card slid out of his deck and flew into his Graveyard. Deathless wasn't done as he slammed another card into his disk.

"With this card, I'll turn this duel 180 in my favor. Mystical Space Typhoon, destroy his Falling Down!"

True to his word, a hologram of the well-known quick-play magic card appeared and unleashed a powerful wind that blew the target away. Without that card brainwashing it, Colossal Fighter returned to its original state and lumbered back to its owner. Deathless cackled as his monsters, now lead by the massive Warrior, readied themselves to attack.

"You're practically finished now. Colossal Fighter, lead the charge with Earth Shattering Knuckle!"

The gigantic Warrior lumbered forward and socked James' Red Dragon Archfiend with a powerful haymaker. It fell to the ground and burst into shards with a pained rumble as James' life points fell to 3700.

"Knight, Bushi...Combination attack, Death-bearer edge!"

The two swordsmen dashed forward and swung their blades at James. With incredible calm, James caught the weapons on his duel disk. Then, he pushed the two monsters away even as his life points fell further, to 1100. Deathless was flabbergasted at this ease while his monsters returned to his field with some choice words for James.

"How in the world are you doing stuff like that, young Legion? Normally, when Duelists are attacked Directly, they just have to grin and bear it."

James stretched a bit, as calm as ever. When he gazed right at Deathless, he responded, "I know, but with what I've had to do, just bearing it was never an option. Either way, this duel ends now."

With a flourish, James drew his card. He gave it a little regard before taking one of his other cards out of his hand.

"I activate Archfiend's Oath and here's how it works," A continuous spell card arose on his field. It depicted Terrorking Archfiend carving something onto a stone tablet with a beam of energy. "By paying 500 life points, I declare the name of any card I can think of. If the top card of my deck is the declared card, then it's added to my hand. If not, then it's sent to the graveyard. I was actually kind of hesitant in adding it to this deck, but the wardens insisted."

"Wardens? What do you mean by that?" Deathless inquired.

"You must know about my Probation decks since you went straight for that particular one. A Warden is any Duel Spirit that acts as part of the seal that keeps the malevolent Spirits contained. When I make a Probation deck, the Wardens are allowed to have say in what cards go into it. Many times, the Wardens dictate the entire deck itself outside of themselves and the sealed Spirits." James explained casually.

"If that's the case, then that means you're using a "Probation" deck right now, aren't you? You took quite a risk using it against me."

"I guess I did. Not too terribly surprising. I had to meet a challenging duel sometime. Anyway, Archfiend's Oath...Activate!"

James' life points fell by 500 as the spell card glowed with a sick green light.

"I declare the top card of my deck to be, Warrior of Zera (1600/1600)!"

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Sharona had an almost belligerent look on her face when she replied, "Not that it matters, but if you must know then I'll tell you. I've been asking people you've dueled at school about your deck."

"So, you specifically prepared your deck to defeat mine, huh? That's low, Sharona, real low."

"Of course not! Information is as much part of a battle as the actual combat though. While I didn't do anything to prepare my deck to face off against you, by knowing the cards you use most often, I have a better chance of controlling the flow of the duel. As the ancient war master, Sun Tzu, once said, 'If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.' Why should duels be any different?" Sharona declared with a posture to match her expression.

Maev sighed. _Sharona is nice enough for someone who comes from a rich family, but everyone has a bad side. Which I think I just got on hers when I made that accusation about her stalking me. Oh well, I was going to get attacked directly twice anyway._

With an angry flick towards the towering shelves of the Royal Magical Library, Sharona shouted, "Doomkaiser, blow away her books...Undead Ruler's Flare!"

The burst of energy that destroyed Maev's Paladin of White Dragon shot out from the Zombified Dragon and reduced the target to splinters. Without a need for prompting, the two remaining monsters surged forward and struck Maev hard...Despair from the Dark clouting her on the side with a massive claw while the stolen Magician of Black Chaos nailed her in the gut with its staff. As they returned to Sharona's field, Maev's life points dropped greatly, from 10500 to 4600, as well as Maev dropping on one knee.

Heaving a relieved sigh, Sharona said, "On that note, I'll end my turn. Sorry about the aggression."

Maev was rubbing the places that were struck as she stood back up. Drawing her card, she didn't look at it as she added it to her hand. Taking some other card from her hand, she declared, "I summon Blockman (1000/1500) and end my turn."

A pile of worn-out legos fell onto the field and then magically assembled into a roughly humanoid form. The frost covering her face-down cards evaporated along with the ice on the ground.

"What else could you do? Alright then, I'll draw," Sharona shrugged. Frowning at her hand, she continued, "I don't have anything here to deal with your face-down cards. Since you were cocky enough to dare me to attack on that one turn, I'll assume at least one of your four cards is not a bluff. If that's the case, I'll just re-summon Mezuki and end my turn also."

The horse-headed humanoid leapt onto the field from wherever. Maev gave her a look before drawing. Blockman turned and looked at her, to which she nodded in response.

"I activate the effect of my Blockman. By tributing him, I get one Block token in defense position, with the exact same stats as Blockman himself, for every one of my turns he's face-up on the field starting with the turn he's summoned. It's only been two, so that's two tokens."

The lego monsters broke into its parts and then reassembled into a pair of smaller forms(1000/1500) x2. One of Maev's face-down cards flipped up, revealing a trap card with an image of a jackel statue.

"This is my Curse of Anubis trap card. All effect monsters are switched to defense position and for this turn only, they lose their DEF score and cannot switch positions." Sharona's monsters all did something to indicate the change; the humanoid ones knelt, the Dragon sunk to the ground, and Despair did...something. As was spoken, their DEF read 0.

"I think I'll activate another face-down card. I hadn't wanted to lose it because of Morphing Jar, so I set it down. Go, Shinato's Ark!"

A large wooden boat floated out of the sky to rest right over Maev's head. The front of it split open and the Block Tokens were drawn in before sealing up again.

"I have to offer at least 8 levels worth of monsters to summon one of the most powerful Ritual Monsters in the game. Descend, Shinato, King of a Higher Plane!" (3300/3000)

Rays of light shown through the spaces between the wooden boards. In a dazzling display, the Ark slowly broke apart, leaving behind a sphere of light that settled down on Maev's field. As the light gradually faded away, an imposing man with blue skin and six golden wings, wearing a combination of golden armor and modest robes, was revealed to everyone. The atmosphere of Zombie World seemed to shy away from him even as the duel disks registered the change to his type.

"Shinato, I ask of you, cleanse the field of Doomkaiser Dragon with your Celestial Purification!"

The mighty deity gave a solemn nod before releasing a powerful blast of light that blew right through the undead ruler and then plowed right into Sharona. She was still standing when the light faded, but her life points registered at 5600. Just then, the Zombified Magician dissolved into dust which was blown back into Maev's Graveyard. Sharona sighed at the loss, "So, you knew that destroying my Doomkaiser Dragon would also destroy the monster it summoned. Care to explain why I lost life points now?"

Maev gave her head a quick tilt before saying, "I didn't really know, let's just call it a hunch. As for your life points, Shinato inflicts the original ATK of any defense position monster he destroys as damage to my opponent. You're about to take another hit, though. I activate another trap card, Lineage of Destruction!"

The face-down card lifted up, revealing an image of Mystical Elf and Giant Soldier of Stone being caught in an explosion with a sinister shadow in the background. Shinato glowed with a violet light as Maev explained, "I can only activate this card during a turn where I destroy an opponent's defense position monster. Now, one level 8 monster I control can attack twice! Shinato, banish Despair from the Dark! Celestial Purification!"

Once more, Shinato shot forth a powerful blast of light. Just like before, it obliterated its target and then plowed through Sharona. Her life points fell again, to 2800.

***************************************************

James took the top card off his deck and then flipped it around for Deathless to see. It was indeed Warrior of Zera, which James immediately summoned. A buff man wearing green armor and wielding a white-blue demonic sword stepped onto the field. He looked a little apprehensive to be in Pandemonium.

"Since you know that this is a Probation deck, then how about I introduce you to another of its prisoners? You met one of them in the form of Imprisoned Queen Archfiend. Now, I can bring forth another by tributing Warrior of Zera while Pandemonium is on field."

The sky above the field turned ominous, lightning flashed in the distance and thunder rumbled overhead. Warrior of Zera seemed on the edge of dropping his sword and running for his life. A dark mist spewed forth from the altar between the duelists, coalescing around the frightened Warrior. With a cry of pain, the Warrior let go of his sword and fell onto his hands and knees. His cry turned into a roar as his body began to transform. After several moments, the mist dissipated to reveal a more demonic human; some of his armor seemed to have integrated with him, now serving as bat-like wings. His gauntlet covered hands had become deadly claws while his feet were almost like a lizard's. Finally, he now sported a thick tail that matched his feet.

"This is Mazera DeVille. One of the monsters striving for Parole in this deck. Now his effect activates. When he's summoned with Pandemonium on the field, up to three cards are randomly discarded from your hand. I do believe you don't have that many."

Deathless sneered as he tossed his remaining hand into his Graveyard, "Don't forget, the monster you sacrificed was a Warrior, so my Colossal Fighter gets 100 more ATK!"

Colossal Fighter's ATK had registered at 3500 before Deathless pointed it out. James merely shrugged in response. Clearing his throat, James then commanded Mazera, "Strike down his Armageddon Knight with Corrupting Flames!"

With slow, maniacal laughter, Mazera DeVille sprouted black fire from the palms of his hands. Pushing them together to create a fireball, he pulled his hand back and then flung it like a pitcher. As the fireball neared its target however, a humanoid phantom with long white hair and red armor came out of the ground and deflected it away. Deathless started laughing as Colossal Fighter's ATK dropped 100 points.

"Did you forget that I had sent Necro Gardna to the Graveyard? All I had to do was remove it from play to negate your attack."

James merely gave him a look before saying, "I didn't forget and I know what it does. I just did it because."

Deathless stopped laughing and gave James an incredulous look.

"Just did it because? Why do it then if it has no purpose?"

James' response was...a smirk. He smirked at Deathless.

"You told me that you enjoy killing for killing's sake. A common belief for serial killers is that, by killing every so often, Death is appeased and keeps them far from Death. Very selfish and stupid thinking, but it's there in this world nonetheless. Everyone has to die sometime...just because you know it's coming, doesn't mean you can do anything to stop it. That's a lesson I had to learn the hard way. After that last turn, I knew that I was going to lose. Go ahead and finish it."

Deathless was dumbfounded. His opponent, publicly recorded as having never lost a duel, was not afraid of losing. He even smirked...another thing recorded as never happening in public. James just stood there smirking while it took Deathless a few moments to get over his shock. Finally clearing his head, Deathless retorted, "If that's how you want it, then so be it. Colossal Fighter, end this duel with your Earth-Shattering Knuckles!"

One last time, the mammoth humanoid strode forward and socked Mazera DeVille with a powerful punch. After taking that hit, though, instead of shattering like every other monster before it, Mazera DeVille exploded as James' life points flatlined. This explosion took every hologram with it and shrouded James and Deathless in smoke.

*************************************************************************************

I take way too long to finish these. This chapter is kind of shorter than I originally thought, but then, I hadn't thought it'd take several months for me to get around to finishing it. Oh well, I'll just have to do better from now on.


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

* * *

Sharona was still standing when the light faded. She didn't seem to be in any major pain, for which Maev was relieved.

"I'll just set this one card down," Maev stated as she plucked a card from her hand. "And let you have your turn."

For her part, Sharona didn't waste any time drawing her card. However, she did take a moment to review her strategy. Her gaze flicked over the cards in her hand before shifting to the ones on her field.

_Well, this is a pinch. Why do I never put monster destruction cards into this deck? Oh yeah, because I'm trying to avoid making my deck a cookie-cutter. I'll just have to deal with it...her morphing jar did give me ways to do that, but first..._

"I activate the other effect of Shutendoji! It removes two Zombies in my graveyard from play to give me a draw. I'll remove Fear from the Dark and my currently zombified Morphing Jar, so do your thing, Shutendoji!"

Just like before, the red-skinned Oni raised his gourd and started chanting. The specified cards slid out of the graveyard where Sharona placed them in her sundress's pocket. Drawing her card, her eyes grew wide in surprised delight. Smirking almost nastily, Sharona declared, "I just got my best monster. Ready or not, here he comes! I tribute both Mezuki and Shutendoji to summon the mighty Red Ogre (2800/2100)!"

The designated monsters were surrounded by the fog of Zombie World, vanishing from sight because of its growing density. After a moment, the fog dissipated to reveal a massive red-skinned Oni, with rosary beads around its wrists, waist and ankles, wielding a studded iron club. Still holding her smirk, Sharona took three cards from her hand and set them in her graveyard.

"Here's his effect. When I have normal summoned him, I can ditch any number of cards in my hand to return the same number of cards on the field to their owner's hand. Since I just discarded half my hand, you can guess what's about to happen. Red Ogre, clear her field, Divine Messenger's Advent!"

The large Oni slammed his club into the ground and the resulting shockwave blew away Maev's two face-down cards as well as Shinato himself after a brief struggle.

"Time to end this duel, because Mezuki is in my graveyard. I'll just remove him from play again to bring back Despair from the Dark!"

Once more, his card slipped from the graveyard, which Sharona dealt with, and his image appeared on the field before being engulfed by the shadow that became the massive Zombie. With two 2800 monsters staring right at her and a completely clear field, it looked like Maev was about to lose, but she have a calm look on her face.

"Despair from the Dark, Claws of the Grave attack!" The massive shadow being swung its hands down in an x, which generated long energy blades that spun towards Maev. She braced herself for the blow and was pushed back a bit as her life points sunk down from 4600 to 1800. Small rips appeared on Aaron's jacket where the blades touched it, causing Aaron himself to cringe at the damage he'd have to fix.

"Red Ogre, finish it with your Enma Daioh's Smite!" The giant Oni surged forward, its iron club glowing with energy. It had almost reached Maev when she discarded a card from her hand. In an instant, several balls of brown fur, with big eyes and green claws, popped out of nowhere and intercepted the blow. Red Ogre strained to penetrate the mob and reach its target, but with a cooing sound, the fur balls exploded, sending the Oni back to its owner's field.

"Sorry there, Sharona, but it looks like I'm still in this. My Kuriboh (300/200) saw to that." Maev's calm expression turned into a slight grin when she felt the Kuriboh card express its happiness to help.

Sharona closed her eyes and tried to fight a headache she could feel coming. _So this is what it's like to be thwarted by a Kuriboh. Now I can see why so many big shots in the Pro League don't like them._

"I'll just set one more card down, " One of her three remaining cards went to join the one already on her field. "End turn."

Maev's draw brought her hand to 8 total cards. _Nuts, my deck decided that my only way out should be Russian Roulette. No way to bring out tokens either...guess I'll have to._

"I now activate, Contract with the Dark Master! By offering at least 8 level stars worth of monsters, I get to summon Dark Master - Zorc (2700/1500). As much as I hate to, I'll offer my level eight Shinato."

The angelic ruler's image appeared on the field as a cloaked figure materialized behind him. This figure absorbed the image and then threw off the cloak, revealing a heavily muscled demonic man with red wings. Just like with Shinato before him, the atmosphere shied away from him even as his type changed.

"Now, I activate his effect, Die of the Reaper!"

The demon held up a hand and a black die with skulls in place of dots on its sides materialized. He loft it towards the ceiling of the Mall and all the people watching the duel followed its flight.

"This is a very risky effect for me. Two results will clear your field of monsters and bring me that close to victory; three results will only take out one monster and will leave Zorc vulnerable to the other; the remaining result will destroy Zorc and leave me clear. Come on Zorc, don't let me down!"

The black die landed right in the middle of the field and then bounced back up. It bounced and it bounced; several times it struck the ground, only to push off again. Finally, after seemingly taunting Maev with its bouncing, it stopped and showed its face as a one. A typical depiction of the Grim Reaper, carrying a bloody scythe, floated out of the die. With a mighty swing, it slashed Sharona's field and her monsters shattered.

"Zorc, attack Sharona! Dead Man's Hand!" Dark Master - Zorc's arm glowed pitch black as he pulled it back. Throwing it forward, the glow flew off in the form of the demon's claw. Sharona braced herself and got pushed back a bit as the claw hit her and then went through her before vanishing. Her life points fell to a dangerous 100, but then, one of her face-down cards flipped. It depicted a complicated machine with lots of energy coursing through it.

"I may be almost out of life points, but I'm still in this. My Damage Condenser will now summon a monster whose ATK is, at most, equal to the damage I just took and all I have to do is discard a card from my hand. Come on out, Red-Eyes Zombie Dragon!" (2400/2000)

Sharona discarded one of her two remaining cards and a replica of the machine on her card materialized. The replica surged with electricity for a moment and then exploded, covering the field with white smoke. When the smoke cleared, a black scaled dragon with red glowing eyes and wisps of blue fire surrounding it was revealed. It looked like a zombified version of the Red-Eyes Black Dragon's next stage, the Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon. (2400/2000) Maev gave it a look before setting one card in her hand down.

"It's my turn. I draw," Sharona stated as she draw her next card. She glanced at Maev's new face-down and her own field consisting of; her face-down, Red-Eyes Zombie Dragon, Call of the Mummy and Zombie World cards, and deliberated. _This is it. Whether I win or lose depends on this turn. With 100 life points left, I can't afford to make any mistakes with this. One monster and one face-down each...Maev definitely knew what she was doing when she made that deck of hers. I'm as sure of that card being a genuine threat as I am of the clothes on my back. I don't want to blow it, not when I'm this close._

Standing a bit between Maev and the crowd, Aaron and Laird had been watching silently as they usually did when it was just them watching their friends duel. As soon as Sharona had drawn her card for the turn, Aaron reached into his right pocket and starting messing around with something inside it. Laird noticed a sound like clicking metal, immediately glancing down at Aaron and saw his hand in his pocket. He knew what that meant.

"Here it comes, Maev. This turn decides the game. I activate Deal of Phantom!" With those words, Sharona's face-down card flipped up. It displayed a necklace with a single voilet jewel in front of a smoke-like entity. "It works as follows, I select one face-up monster on the field, like my Red-Eyes Zombie Dragon. After that, the selected monster gains 100 ATK points for every monster in my graveyard. Including the Ryu Kokki(2400/2000) I sent to activate my Damage Condenser, I count six monsters in my Graveyard."

The jewel on the card appeared above the undead dragon, causing it to glow with a sinister white light as its ATK gauge increased to an even 3000. Across from the empowered Zombie, Zorc crossed his arms and held scorn for his opponent on his face. In response, the dragon roared in defiance at the weaker foe.

_If that face down is anything that deals damage to me, then I'm done for._ "My dragon, attack with your Netherworld Havoc Flare!"

With a great roar, the dragon's blue flames gathered in its mouth. After rearing its head back, it threw it forward and released a powerful stream of blue heat. Zorc didn't budge an inch from where he was standing, resulting in him getting engulfed by the flames. When the stream died down, there was nothing left of the proud demon as Maev's life points sank from 1800 to 1500. The undead monster wasn't done, however.

"When the Red-Eyes Zombie Dragon destroys a Zombie monster by battle and sends it to either Graveyard, it summons it to fight for me. Destructive Recreation!"

The blue fires, which had reignited after its attack was done, fell to the ground and created a burning pool from which a flaming skeletal form similar to Zorc's emerged.

"My Zombie Dragon's effect summons the monster during the Battle Phase, meaning I can use the monster I just summoned to attack with! End the duel with Burning Hell Hand!"

The flaming skeleton pulled back its hand, just like when it attack for Maev. Similar to then, it threw its arm forward and launched a claw shaped burst of flames. As the attack approached Maev, her face-down card flipped.

"Defense Draw! The damage from your attack is reduced to 0!" Maev declared as a translucent white barrier surrounded her. The flaming claw slammed into the barrier and was easily dispersed. "Afterwards, I get to draw one card."

Maev's hand increased to five cards as Sharona sighed in disappointment. _So close..._

With a glance at Sharona, Maev quirked an eyebrow before asking, "It's my turn?"

Sighing once more, Sharona looked at the two cards in her hand, a Monster called Berserk Dragon(3500/0) and another copy of Zombie World. She indicated her turn to be over, while not even looking at Maev, with a wave of her hand. Maev drew her card and then looked straight at Sharona and said.

"You've given me quite a challenge, Sharona. I can honestly say that I'm impressed. Maybe if you can catch me in a better mood at a later date, I'll accept an offer for lunch."

Sharona's head snapped straight toward Maev in shock. All she could see was Maev's smiling face even as she plucked a card from her hand and played it.

"But just as friends, alright? I activate, Fulfillment of the Contract. I pay 800 life points in exchange for bringing back one Ritual monster from my Graveyard. Be reborn, Magician of Black Chaos!"

A book appearing in front of Maev and then opened. When a quill materialized in her hand, she signed her name into the book and then both book and quill vanished. Her life points went down to 700 as burning lines drew a complex pentacle on the ground. In a burst of light, the named monster now stood in the center of the pentacle.

"Aim for Zorc...Chaotic Game!" The Magician took aim and then released a powerful sphere of magic from his staff. The sphere zoomed this way and that unpredictably before crashing head on into the skeletal form of Zorc. When it struck, Sharona's field was engulfed in light and all of her cards were taken out in the explosion.

* * *

With the duel finished, I'm cutting the chapter off here. Next chapter will resolve what happened at the end of James' duel with Deathless among a few other things. Comments and suggestions will be appreciated, but flamers will be ignored. Until next chapter, later!


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8

* * *

**

Deathless took his cards from his disk and deactivated it, returning the tray to its sideways dome shape. The side James was on was still covered in smoke, which Deathless gave only a disdained stare before turning around to walk away. It happened right then. Out of the smoke shot a couple of small stone tablets that clanked against the ground and then slid to a stop by Deathless' feet. He only had a moment to glance at them before they began to glow red. With wide eyes, he leaped away with the tablets exploding just a split second after. Now on his guard, Deathless reached into his coat and pulled out a plain looking folding fan. Deathless swung it once, somehow creating a strong wind that blew away both the smoke from the end of the duel and the smoke that resulted from the explosion.

As the smoke was being cleared away by the wind, another tablet shot out and landed by Deathless' feet. Unlike last time though, Deathless was already facing in the direction it came from and kicked it away before it started glowing. It exploded off to the side while still in mid-air. Deathless narrowed his eyes as he realized who was attacking him. Finally cleared of smoke, James stood seriously while holding ready to throw tablets in his left hand. Strangely, though the smoke had completely cleared, it seemed like James himself was producing wisps of steam. Deathless blinked in confusion, he was used to his opponents being too tired after dueling to do anything.

"How are you still standing, young Legion? The powers generated by my duels usually leave my opponents with too little energy to do anything other than fall down and sleep."

On his guard, James replied, "Do you see the wisps that are coming from me? Since you're not blind, I'll assume you can. These wisps basically mean that I'm not as powerful as I was before. My psionic abilities, half my physical strength, a rough amount of my magic...those were merely augments given to me by higher powers so I would be more effective at my job as Warden."

Deathless was curious about this. He had learned long ago that information is very valuable and this information could be useful to his master. Deciding to stay just a little bit more, he asked, "If that's the case, then why are these augments leaving you?"

James tilted his head for a moment, as if listening for something. With a single bob of his head, he spoke up as his body stopped steaming, "It seems that your immortality and my augmentations both came from divine sources. Because of a conflict in the divinity of those sources, our gifts clashed during the duel. When you won, the divinity of your gift canceled out the divinity in mine. Without it, my augmentation dissolved."

"So, without this gift of yours, you are weaker than you were before," Deathless mused with a look of thought. He then got a sinister grin on his face as he said. "It's not against my orders to incapacitate you so you can't interfere with my master's operation!"

Deathless lunged with speed that James didn't think possible for his apparent condition. He dropped the tablets in his hand and then twisted to the right just as Deathless threw a punch. As the punch pasted him, he caught it with both hands, earning a surprised glance from the ancient man. James then used his own weight and Deathless' momentum to throw him across the empty street. Undeterred, Deathless caught himself with a handspring and launched himself back at his much younger opponent. He went low and attempted to sweep James' feet out from under him. James leaped upwards to dodge the sweep and then twisted in midair to deliver a kick on his opponent's chest. The kick didn't even budge him as he caught James by the leg. With incredible strength, Deathless spun around and threw James over the street like James did to him. James caught himself by tumbling, turning himself to face his opponent.

"Not bad at all, young Legion. To think that you can still put up such a fight after both a duel with me and losing your augmentations. Whatever divine backing you have is wise to support you." Deathless then laughed mirthlessly. "Truly! Few who have met me in personal combat, of any kind, can boast to have lasted this long."

James stood up and stated as he took a well practiced stance, "I continue to fight because I know what will happen if that spirit is released from my seals into the hands of evil. As you told me earlier, your boss intends to use that spirit somehow and because of it, you'll be allowed to kill wantonly. I, as a Warden of Duel Spirits, will fight to prevent this! As a Human being that lives on this Earth, I take it upon myself to do what others can't!"

Deathless matched James with a combat stance of his own, "So fight on, young Legion! Show me how long you can last with your resolve in a weakened body!"

They stared each other down from separate sides of the street. Their bodies were motionless and tense, like they were waiting for some invisible signal. Seconds passed, the scenery was almost as still as they were. Finally, a passing flock of geese broke the silence and they took that as a cue to launch themselves towards each other.

* * *

"James is fighting!"

Laird and Aaron turned to look at Maev for her sudden outburst. They were in the car of Laird's father, who was an older replica of Laird himself, after her duel with Sharona. It was as they reached a stoplight some ways from the mall that she stated this. Both of her male friends knew that she wouldn't say anything like that without feeling it happen.

"Who's he fighting?" Laird spoke up from the front passenger seat.

Maev shook her head, "I don't know. I can't feel anything from his opponent except intense feelings of death. If you thought my reaction with Sharona's Zombies was bad, those feelings were mild compared to this guy. He might just be the Grim Reaper himself!"

Aaron reached into his pocket as he joined in, "The Grim Reaper? I don't know if James would do something to call that guy's attention to him. Besides, James can handle himself regardless of who it is he faces...Right?" The clicking of metal on metal could be heard from Aaron's pocket.

"It obviously can't be him," Laird tried to reassure him. "As far as I know, they're technically on the same side. Just keep calm and we'll know for sure when we get there."

Several minutes was spent in silence following this comment. The clicking sound hadn't stopped since Aaron started it. Laird took out his deck and was drawing six cards off the top, only to shuffle them back in and draw six more. Maev had a look of pure concentration on her face as she apparently was keeping her mind on James' fight. It was after a few more minutes of driving that she spoke up again.

"We have to hurry! It feels like his strength is fading fast!"

* * *

James' body was thrown to the concrete from a major blow from Deathless. He had holes in his clothes from constant skids across the pavement, was covered in bruises and was struggling to stand up. His breathing was heavy as he rose shakily on his legs.

"You have my respect for lasting as long as you have, Young Legion. However, as the saying goes, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." That describes your situation perfectly, don't you agree?" The ancient warrior taunted. He had some holes in his clothes too, but no other sign of James' attacks were present. James started muttering under his breath and his hands started glowing. "Oh? Got some more tricks up your sleeve, do you? Let's see how that works out."

Deathless rushed towards him with a fist raised. James took a stance and then lunged with all his weight behind it. He landed one fist on the immortal man's gut and then the other, but all that happened is he stopped his rush to look down on his weakened opponent. The glow around James' hands faded as Deathless grabbed him by the collar and hoisted him into the air.

"I think I've proven my point. You can't stop me now, so I'll just break a few bones to render you incapable of interfering with my master," He had a sick grin on his face as he said this. "Don't worry. I'll be back to finish the job once my master gives me the OK."

He was reaching his other hand down to grab one of James' arms when a car horn blared at him. Deathless was startled by this as he recalled his master telling him that he would redirect traffic to prevent people from coming this way. The car that pulled up had Laird's father at the wheel as James' friends got out.

"You got lucky, young Legion." He whispered to the boy in his grip before releasing him and running away at a speed that not even the car could keep up with if it gave chase. James was losing consciousness by then, however, and passed out as soon as he landed on the ground. His friends rushing towards him was the last thing he saw.

* * *

Several hours later, James came awake to find himself in his own queen-sized bed with his bruises gone and his clothes changed to a simple robe. His room was rather big with a walk-in closet, its own bathroom off to the side and three skylights. He had a fine oak dresser on the opposite wall from his bed and a couple of oak desks on either side, one with a computer and related stuff on it while the other was covered with books in multiple languages. James couldn't really see all this as he was surrounded by various Duel Spirits, especially humanoid Spellcasters and Fairies. They stepped aside though, to reveal his friends also standing there.

When they started asking for explanations to what happened after he left, he told them about his encounter with Deathless. By the time he was done, his friends had taken seats on his bed to get over the shock of such a sadistic man and how close he came to grievous harming James.

"So, do you know why he wanted that specific deck?" Aaron asked, as he recovered first. "I mean, you have several decks with Spirits that could bring about what you said he intended to do with that one, so why that one specifically?"

James gathered his friends in his gaze when he replied, "While I don't know what this Master of his intends with my deck, that Duel Spirit is a malevolent version of a Legendary Planet card. Specifically, The Tyrant Neptune." (0/0)

Laird spoke up, "Wait...You mean, you had a copy of a card from the rare Legendary Planet series and it's got an evil spirit attached to it!"

The Warden of Duel Spirits nodded, "It's one of the more powerful cards of the Legendary Planets. While Duel Spirits tend to be limited by their cards in a duel, The Tyrant Neptune has amazing power both inside and outside its card."

"I know it's card effect," Aaron cut in. "While it can't be special summoned, it's a level 10 monster that can be Advance Summoned by releasing one monster. It's starting stats are 0, but it gains the ATK and DEF of any monsters released to summon it and if one of those monsters is an Effect Monster, it can take the name and effect of said monster to use as its own until it leaves the field...Its in-duel power is incredible!"

James nodded again, "Several Duel Spirits actually have greater power outside of duels than inside, especially if they are classified as Normal Monsters. However, that makes them much more dangerous to people when they are malevolent."

Maev looked over many of the Duel Spirits present and could immediately tell that James was correct in what he said. She could feel the power in them as clearly as she could in James himself. That's when she spoke up.

"James, how are you going to get that deck back?"

Looking at Maev first, then sweeping everyone else in the room, he asked of the Duel Spirits, "Have you tracked it down yet?"

The Duel Spirits all indicated a negative. Sighing, he slowly climbed out of bed and then declared to everyone, "Well, I don't have time to wait for them to make their move. It'll take some time, but I'll find that deck and undo any damage to the seal that they do to it. I have to, as a Warden of Duel Spirits."

Several Minds on Air approached James as he stood. The one at the front spoke up, "Master James. We sent out word to other Wardens to keep watch and see what they can come up with in regards to this theft."

"Good! Keep me updated. Hey," James addressed the Fairies. "See what you can do to get my augmentation back. I'll need to be back at maximum strength if I want to deal with Deathless and his unknown master. Duel Spirits, dismissed!"

Every Duel Spirit disappeared with a nod...and then James collapsed back onto his back. He looked exhausted to his friends as he said, "What a fight. Apparently, if his master hadn't ordered him to leave me alive, I'd have been dead."

Maev spoke up again, "Well, you're still alive. Don't dwell on what didn't happen. We're here and we're going to help."

James blew out a massive breath before agreeing, "Yeah, I know you guy will." He sat up. "That said, we have to be prepared for the upcoming battles. Stay the night and we'll work on making ourselves stronger."

All his friends nodded their agreement with his statement. Taking out their cellphones, they called their parents to let them know about the impromptu sleep-over.

* * *

Hundreds of miles away from James house, a woman in her early thirties had just knocked out all but the leader of a street gang inside a dead-ended alley. She had short red hair accent her sharp face and was dressed like a biker; black leather boots, mid-rise boot-cut jeans with leather chaps and a wallet chained to a belt loop, form-fitting t-shirt, leather riding jacket and titanium-plated gloves. Those gloves were put to good use when dealing with the gang.

"What kind of monster are you!" The gang leader yelled at the woman. In response, the lady slowly approached him as he collapsed and scuttled backwards. When he was basically pinned against the wall of a dead-end, she spoke in a militant, alto voice.

"How rude! I'm a lady, not a monster." Her eyes caught his and held them in a vice-grip as she continued. "Consider this a warning. Next time you want trouble, I'll come around to give it to you!"

The gang leader was scared out of his wits and could only nod in agreement. Just like that, the woman turned on her heels and left the alley. When she returned to her bike, a hard red sport-touring motorcycle, she found a man inspecting it. He was easily older than her, likely in his late forties, dressed in steel-toed boots, regular jeans, a loose t-shirt and jean jacket. When she got close enough, he turned his attention to her.

"This your bike? You've got an eye for quality." His voice was slick, like he knew he could get any woman he wanted just by asking. The woman scoffed, but couldn't say anything before he continued. "Well, that doesn't matter at the moment. I'm just here to play a little game with you, Warden of Duel Spirits Jade Hayes!"

Jade's eyes narrowed as she asked, "A shadow game, I take it?"

"Smart girl. Well then, shall we get started?" The slick man grinned evilly as a pitch black aura surrounded him.

* * *

Well, that took much longer than I thought. Not sure what lit that fire under my seat, but it's good enough for this chapter. Sorry for the cliffhanger, but thems the breaks. Anyway, please review and tell me what you think. Any questions, don't hesitate to ask.


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

* * *

The black aura surrounding the strange man pulsed like a heart beat as it expanded and contracted around him. Oddly, the aura didn't seem attached to him, it just seemed to float around him like a shroud of smoke. Jade's eyes narrowed as she watched it. That's also when she noticed his duel disk, recognizing it from mental images sent by James' Duel Spirits. It was the same design as Deathless' disk.

"If you want to duel, then get out of the way so I can get my disk." Jade's clipped tone snapped at the man. He grinned evilly in response.

"I could do that, but that would make things fair and I don't have orders to allow a fair fight," The black aura seemed to agree as it surged for a moment. "Besides, I can use the power given to me to bring out beasts to tear you apart without a duel."

In response to that declaration, the aura expanded further than it had been doing until now. Out of it came half a dozen beasts. They looked like wolves, but their fur was exceedingly dark, their claws were powerfully sharp and they each had a pair of bull horns on their head. Growling and snapping their jaws, they showed off knife-like fangs. The man was laughing his head off as the wolf-like beasts advanced on the Warden, who merely crossed her arms with a scowl on her face.

"My own personal pack of hellwolves. There won't be anything left of you when they're through!" The wolves lunged at Jade, who showed no sign of being worried by the beasts. As the nearest ones came close, Jade shot out a hand in a chop. Apparently, her hands were blades as her chop cut through the beasts like they weren't even there. She met the rest of the hellwolves with a chop each, their bodies reduced to smoke before they touched the ground again.

The man stood there, flabbergasted, "My hellwolves...I raised them from pups...how did you slaughter them so easily?"

Jade stretched out a bit before answering, "If they were dire hellwolves, I would have been a little worried. You apparently do not know much about Duel Spirit Wardens. We all have divine backing in our job so it is easy to get anything we may need for work. Take my titanium-plated gloves, for instance. I, myself, may not be magically inclined like some other Wardens, but these gloves have many Saint enchantments on them."

Snapping out of his daze during the explanation, the man stepped off to one side to allow Jade access to her motorcycle while remarking, "Saint enchantments...high-level holy magic. Now I get it. My precious wolves didn't stand a chance."

While watching the man out of the corner of her eye, Jade walked up to her bike and opened her storage attached to the back. She reached in and pulled out a custom disk. At first glance, it could be mistaken for an Orichalcos disk except it was a light platinum color and its runes were vastly different. The disk activated and the tray extended, which was like a slimmer version of a normal disk, unlike the scythe of the Orichalcos that the evil disk would have. The evil man activated his disk, but unlike Deathless' disk, the dome that became the tray didn't split into three sections for the slots. Instead, it extended away from the base and very slim slots popped out between the dome and base like they were spring loaded.

With a snap of her fingers, a deck appeared in Jade's right hand, which she quickly loaded into the deck slot on the base. As the man was loading his, he commented on her summoning her deck, "That was quite a trick for someone who isn't inclined towards magic."

Jade's answer was, "There is a difference between not having inclination towards something and not being able to do it. I would rather be at a gym than studying old, dusty books. Because of this, the few strong spells I can use on my own would be ranked 5 if you went by D&D standards."

He frowned, "So you're saying that if you wanted to, you could master magic like a wizard could? Quite a bold claim, little girl."

A smirk came with the answer, "Being a Warden means having the power needed to subdue mighty beasts that can be equal or greater to forces of nature. Not that I really need that kind of power to whip you good."

The man scowled, "Enough inane babble."

"LET'S DUEL!" They shouted in unison.

**(Jade-8000LP, ?-8000LP)**

The unnamed man drew his hand, "I'll start!"

Jade merely shrugged as he thought out his turn. He took two cards from his hand, setting one down in a magic and trap slot before setting the other down above it.

"I'll set one card down and summon Elemental Hero Stratos!" (1800/300) A man with blue skin fell from the sky to land in front of the mystery man. He wore futuristic armor over his lower body and parts of his upper body with a pair of fan-equipped wings on his back.

As the Hero monster landed, Jade had a scowl on her face while saying, "A man who raises hellwolves using a Hero deck. You are a very twisted individual."

The man grinned evilly as he welcomed the insult, "Thank you, I do like to be complimented on my work. However, flattery will get you nowhere in this duel. Stratos' effect activates!"

Jade closed her eyes as she interrupted, "When he is normal or special summoned, you can select one of two effects. Either you add a Hero monster from your deck to your hand or destroy spell and/or trap cards on the field equal to the number of Hero monsters you control other than Stratos himself. Is that what you were going to say?"

Seemingly like he had been slapped in the face, the unnamed man did manage to get out, "Yes...and since I'm starting this duel, I'll add a Hero monster to my hand."

A card slid out of his deck and he showed it to Jade, "Elemental Hero Bladedge (2600/1800) is my pick."

Jade's eyes narrowed as he set it in his hand and plucked a different card to play. A Continuous Spell card appeared on the field, its image of a group of skycrapers being sucked into a warp hole. She once again spoke up about the card he played, "Future Fusion. You select fusion material monsters from your deck and send them to the graveyard. After your second Standby Phase, you get to summon the monster those fusion material belonged to. So, who are you going to bring out?"

An evil grin was his response as five cards slipped from his deck. The number of cards caused Jade's eyes to narrow once more, even more so when they were revealed to be Elemental Hero Necroshade (1600/1800), Elemental Hero Neos (2500/2000), Destiny Hero - Dasher (2100/1000), Destiny Hero - Disk Commander (300/300), and Neo-Spacian Air Hummingbird (800/600). He casually tossed them into the air and a vortex appeared out of the Future Fusion card to catch them. Looking over his hand once more, he snapped his fingers and said, "I'm done."

"Fine then, my turn!" Jade snapped the top card from the deck. She hardly even looked at her hand before she began her move. "I will start off with Sunlight Unicorn!" (1800/1000)

A bonfire ignited in front of Jade, but she didn't flinch, before burning out to leave a beautiful white unicorn with blue fire in place of its mane and tail, as well as, around each leg near the hoof. At its appearence, the evil Hero duelist burst out laughing.

"A tough as nails ex-general using My Little Pony. How cute." Jade just stood there, letting him laugh. When his laughter started dying down, she spoke.

"You have never seen what wild mustangs are capable of doing to a person, have you? Unicorns like this one can do a whole lot more. This perticular breed, for instance, lets me pick up the top card of my deck. If it is an Equip spell, I add it to my hand, but if not, then it is sent to the bottom of my deck. Prominence Forge!"

At the command, the fires on Sunlight Unicorn grew in size before washing over Jade. The top card popped loose for the Warden to pick up. She didn't even look at it before playing it.

"I activate Horn of the Unicorn!" The horn her monster had became coated in crystal, extending its range. (2500/1700) "This equip grants a 700 point increase to ATK and DEF. Now, I have a theory about what your set card is. Let us see if it holds water. Burning Impalement!"

Her unicorn's horn was engulfed in blue fire as it rushed the winged Hero with speed that'd put a sprinting racehorse to shame. Stratos had no time to react before the crystal coated horn pierced his chest, shattering him to pixels.

**(Jade-8000LP, ?-7300LP)**

As the Hero disappeared, the set card lifted up to reveal the image of a dark cityscape with a searchlight bearing a D on the clouds. With its image now revealed, the card produced its own searchlight as a card was ejected by the man's disk.

"Destiny Signal. Seems I was right." Jade muttered as the man plucked the card from the deck and played it. From a rooftop above them fell a crystal-masked hero wearing a dark suit and cape with several crystals seemingly growing out of him. "And it seems that your choice was Destiny Hero-Diamond Dude." (1400/1600)

Frowning, the man spoke up, "I'm sorry, but do you like stating the obvious? I can understand hammering the details into amateurs, but I am fully aware of my cards and actions."

Jade didn't react, only taking two cards from her hand and setting them down. Their holograms appeared behind Sunlight Unicorn as the duelist declared, "Turn to you."

The frown only deepened as her opponent drew his card. It disappeared as he saw the card. "I'll activate the effect of Destiny Hero-Dasher from my graveyard. Be summoned, my second Elemental Hero Stratos!"

Just like the first, the Hero monster dropped out of the sky and landed in front of his summoner. The man frown in thought as he looked over the field.

"I now have a decision to make. Which of your cards to destroy. Your set cards could easily be traps that would destroy my monsters if I attacked, but I could miss and hit the one card that won't stop me." The dark aura that still surrounded him pulsed and squirmed for a moment before the man continued speaking. "They won't do anything to stop my attacks, it seems. In that case, I'll take the direct approach and have Stratos destroy your Horn of the Unicorn!"

The futuristic Hero's fans created a powerful gust of wind that shattered the crystal covering on Sunlight Unicorn's horn(1800/1000). Afterwards, the crystal shards reformed into a card on top of Jade's deck.

"Now that I don't have to worry about that, I'll use Elemental Hero Necroshade's effect to summon Elemental Hero Bladedge without tribute!" From around a corner behind the man, came a huge, golden armored Hero with blades on his forearms and on his back were wings and a jetpack. He stoically crosses his arms in a way to point the blades at Jade. After a moment, the unnamed man pointed to Diamond Dude and said, "I'll wait a moment and let my gemstone Hero work his charms. Fate's Reflection!"

The back of a card appeared to reflect off the Hero's crystals, only to turn around and reveal itself to be Destiny Draw. A quick flash of light indicated the top card of the man's deck went to the graveyard. His mouth spread in an evil grin as he chuckled, "Oh, Destiny Draw. Lucky!"

With the grin still on his face, he then pointed to Bladedge and commanded, "Lead the charge, my Hero. Rocket Cross Cleave!"

The Hero's jetpack ignited, but the armored man braced himself to allow it to build up pressure for a powerful launch. As this pressure built up, though, both of Jade's face-down cards lifted to reveal two Continuous Traps.

"Reveal DNA Surgery and Berserking! All monsters will be Beasts!" DNA Surgery glowed with an unsettling light, which spread out to shine on the monsters. While nothing happened to Sunlight Unicorn, the three Heroes elongated and hunched over as their bodies changed and became bestial, bearing resemblance to primate species. Then, Jade continued speaking. "Berserking's effect activates now. I choose two Beast-type monsters. One loses half its ATK, which the other one gains for the remainder of the turn. I choose to half your Bladedge's ATK and add it to my Sunlight Unicorn!"

Berserking glowed with a rage red aura as Sunlight Unicorn gained the same aura and its muscles bulged (3100/1000). The armored Hero seemed to cringe away in fear, even as his rocket's thrust finally forced him to launch at the enemy before him (1300/1800). In his fear, Bladedge tried to turn himself around to escape, but he lost control of his jetpack and ended up impaling himself on Sunlight Unicorn's horn. The armored form shattered into triangles as the Hero duelist's lifepoints ticked down.

**(Jade-8000LP, ?-5500LP)**

The man glowered as he took one of his remaining cards and set it. His voice sounded almost feral when he growled, "Your move."

As the turn changed, the fiery unicorn reverted back to its previous bulk. With a stoic expression, Jade drew her card. Again, she didn't even look at it before adding it to her hand, but that isn't surprising as both duelists knew that it was Horn of the Unicorn. For a moment, she looked over the field before starting her move.

"Activate Ancient Rules! Now, one level five or higher normal monster is special summoned from my hand!" A scroll appeared, depicting a castle and a blue fiery dragon. The dragon image came to life as the scroll was consumed in similarly colored flames. A powerful neighing was heard as out of the fire came a violet horse carrying a blue armored rider, who was wielding two red lances. "Introducing Gaia, the Fierce Knight!" (2300/2100)

Not slowing down in the least, she took Horn of the Unicorn and slid it into an empty slot. Immediately, Sunlight Unicorn's horn was once more encased in the sharp crystal. (2500/1700) Not stopping there, she slammed her last card down onto an empty monster slot. Another powerful neighing could be heard as a dark wind coalesced into a darker version of the horse and rider she had just summoned. "When he is the only card in my hand, Swift Gaia, the Fierce Knight can be summoned without tribute!" (2300/2100)

The black aura around the unknown man shuddered a bit as the man himself adopted a look that said, 'This is going to hurt'. Jade merely shot out a hand and commanded, "Double Spiral Joust!"

First, the normal Fierce Knight galloped forward, jabbing with his lance as the wind pressure became a cutting spiral on his lance. A similar spiral shape appeared on Diamond Dude's chest upon impact, shattering him as the pressure of the blow continued on to hit the older man. Then, the darker version shot forward, a similar cutting spiral forming on his lance as he bore down on Statos. Just like with the original Gaia, the air pressure of the blow formed a spiral on Statos before he shattered and the force went on to strike the duelist behind him.

**(Jade-8000LP, ?-4100LP)**

However, before Sunlight Unicorn could begin his charge, a square hole reminiscent of a doorway appeared on the man's field. Out of it popped a man in a mostly light blue suit with large CDs on his wrists and like wings on his back. He landed in a crouch, using the disks on his wrists like shields. After that, the man drew two cards while saying, "I probably don't need to say this, but the attack allowed me to activate Damage Gate. Since it allowed me to summon a monster from my graveyard with ATK at most equal to the damage I took, I choose to summon Disk Commander."

"And since he was summoned from the graveyard, you got to draw twice. Rather smart of you to wait so that I would have to attack him with Sunlight Unicorn. It is common instinct to clear the path for the strongest monsters to attack directly." Jade commented offhandedly.

"I noticed something as well. You didn't activate Berserking's effect when it would have increased the damage I recieved." The dark aura seemed to pulse confirmation of this as the man glared at Jade. "Why didn't you?"

The Warden shrugged as Sunlight Unicorn charged, piercing Disk Commander with the crystal covered horn. The Hero shattered and then she indicated that her turn was over. Immediately after the man drew his card, Future Fusion glowed before releasing a chaotic vortex. A powerful form emerged from this swirling energy with a silver cord connecting the two, a massive white-suited Warrior wearing gold armor with a winged motif. With a battlecry, he stretched himself out before staring down at the duelist before him. (2500/2500)

Mad laughter erupted from the man, "You don't stand a chance now! Behold, Elemental Hero Divine Neos!" He took a moment to calm down before continuing, "However, before I get ahead of myself, I will activate Destiny Draw in my graveyard."

He drew twice more, but then immediate took a card from his hand and played it, "But why stop at one? I can activate Miracle Fusion to remove Dasher, Necroshade, Neos, Stratos and Air Hummingbird in my graveyard from play to fuse together a second Divine Neos!"

A vortex similar to Future Fusion's formed on the ground as specters of the selected monsters left the man's graveyard slot and were pulled in. Instantly, another monster identical to the other one on the man's field shot out of the vortex before it closed shut. However, Jade's opponent wasn't done. He had swiftly played another card from his hand, the holographic card that appeared on the field had an image of an angelic woman with a glowing card above her hands.

"With this Graceful Charity, yeah I get to draw three cards, but more importantly to my strategy, I discard two cards after that." A womanly form appeared and touched the top of his deck. Unlike the woman on the card, this woman seemed more like a fallen angel; black tattered wings, crimson hot pants and a matching tube top with short black hair. She smirked evilly at Jade before disappearing after the man drew his cards. He didn't really hesitate before he discarded two cards from his hand. A smirk similar to the woman's crossed the man's face.

"I have everything I need to hit you hard for the stuff you've put me through. I summon Armor Breaker!" (800/800) A small, armored man that wore what looked like a massive hammer mallet for a helmet appeared next to the much larger, armored figures. Jade didn't react to this revelation, but the man didn't care as he continued. "Now, I'll union this guy to one of my Heroes."

The armored man leaped into the air and formed into a massive hammer, which was caught by the nearest Divine Neos. However, the man then spoke some more, "Everything's almost set up. Now, I activate both of my Neos' effects. I just remove a Hero monster in my graveyard from play to give their ATK a 500 point boost and give them the effect of the removed monster. So the one equipped with Armor Breaker will remove the Elemental Hero Wildheart I discarded with Graceful Charity to make himself unaffected by Traps while the other one will absorb the other monster I discarded, Destiny Hero - Dunker!"

Two phantoms floated out of his disk; one a heavily tanned, muscular man wielding a massive scimitar and the other a muscular man in grey armor with a green face and violet dreadlocks. The first was absorbed by the Divine Neos with the Armor Breaker hammer, gaining a huge scimitar in his other hand while the other phantom was taken by the unequipped one, which turned his armor grey. (3000/2500 x2)

"I will activate the effect of my Divine Neos that absorbed Dunker. I merely have to discard one Destiny Hero to slam dunk 500 damage on you. So I'll get rid of these Destiny Hero - Malicious and hit you for 1000 damage!" The man declared as he tossed two cards form his hand. Two balls of light formed in the Hero's hands, which he threw at Jade with the force of a railgun. Both exploded on contact, but when the smoke and dust cleared, she appeared to be unaffected.

**(Jade-7000LP, ?-4100LP)**

Seemingly not surprised, the man then commanded, "Divine Neos, destroy Sunlight Unicorn with God Hammer!"

The horned equine stood proudly as the hammer came down on it. While the shockwave of the impact shattered Berserking, Jade stood unmoved by the powerful blow. Again, no surprise showed on the man's face as he continued with the other one, "Attack Swift Gaia with God Ball Slammer!"

The massive Warrior put his hands close to each other and a ball of light appeared between them. Similarly to when he used Dunker's effect, he threw the sphere at the dark horseman with incredible force. The horse he rode whinnied before they both shattered. All the resulting impact shockwave did was blow Jade's hair and jacket with the wind.

**(Jade-5800LP, ?-4100LP)**

Her enemy smirked, the scimitar faded from the hand of the one Divine Neos and the gold color returned to the armor of the other, as he concluded, "Turn's yours."

She drew, but they both knew it wouldn't help her as it was Horn of the Unicorn. All she did was shift her remaining monster to defense, the knight crossing his lances as his horse got down on its front knees. The guy shrugged as his turn started, "Eh, what else could you do?"

He drew and then declared, "I'll remove my other Stratos and Diamond Dude to power up my Divine Neos!" A replica of Stratos' wings appeared on the back of the Neos that had the hammer while each gauntlet of the other Neos gained several sharp crystals. (3500/2500 x2)

"You know what to do, my Neos. God Hammer and God Adamant Fist!" Once more, the impact of the giant hammer sounded the death of Jade's monster. The second Neos hurled his massive fist, which Jade caught easily with one hand. This did give both the man and his aura pause as the massive Hero was thrown back.

**(Jade-2300LP, ?-4100LP)**

"How strong are you? From what our agent said, James struggled to hold back a blow that was weaker than that one." The man's aura surged as if it was struggling to answer that question.

Jade smirked cockily as she spoke, "He's only been a Warden for about five years and he's more magically inclined. So his strength was comparable to a Judgeman's. I've been a Warden for over twenty years and am more physically inclined. My strength is more comparable to a Master of Oz!"

The man scowled as he then asked, "If that's the case, then why do Duel Spirit Wardens get so strong?"

"Removal of limiters," came Jade's simple reply.

Comprehension dawned on the man's face and his aura shifted to indicate a similar understanding, "So that thing about divine gifts that James mentioned? He was talking about some divine entity removing his body's limits. The master will be pleased to hear this. I'd better finish up this children's card game and report to him."

Jade's expression changed in an instant. Her eyes hardened with rage as she spoke with a steel edge, "What did you just say?"

The man apparently didn't understand what was wrong, as he spoke rather confusedly, "About my master?"

Her next words came out as a combination of a command and a bark, "No, about Duel Monsters!"

Rather dismissively, the man answered, "It's a card game made for kids by a man who looked like he hung around gay bars. Honestly, people try to use it to solve conflicts way too much these days. I miss the days where actual fighting was used to determine the strong from the weak."

Jade glared at him like an angry statue before asking, "Is that your turn?"

The man blinked before nodding. Jade didn't waste a moment before drawing her card. She paused before saying, "For insulting the respect of countless Duel Spirits, your punishment will be death."

Surprise met this statement as she played the card she had just drawn, a green smiling jar materialized in front of her and spat out two cards. Immediately, she played one card facedown in a monster zone and set the other one down behind it. She then crossed her arms and glared at her opponent. While a bit thrown off by her sudden change in attitude, he took her action to mean that it was his turn. He drew his card and grunted with displeasure as he removed Bladedge for the power-up of the hammer-wielding Neos and Disk Commander for the other one. The first ones gauntlets gained blades while the other one gained the CDs for his. (4000/2500 x2)

"Go, Piercing God Hammer!" As the mighty swing came down, Jade's facedown card flipped up to reveal Negate Attack. A barrier sprang up and intercepted the blow. With a huff, the man gestured for her to go. She drew and immediately set the card. After that, she flipped her defense monster face-up to reveal the familiar blue-grey of Morphing Jar. She discarded Horn of the Unicorn while the man discarded his four cards and then both refreshed their hands.

As soon as all the cards were drawn, Jade declared, "It's time for your punishment. My facedown Monster Reborn will bring back Gaia, the Fierce Knight!" The intricate item from the card materialized and then glowed. A portal formed below the crystal and out of it leaped the blue-armored knight on his steed. However, she continued on before her opponent could question her actions. "Next comes Polymerization! I'll fuse my Gaia with this Curse of Dragon in my hand to form Gaia, the Dragon Champion!"

A skeletal Dragon appeared next to the ready Knight and both were sucked into the vortex that Polymerization had called. Out of this vortex came the blue-armored knight while riding the Dragon he entered with. (2600/2100) After this, Jade another card from her hand, this one bore the image of a Berserk Gorilla covered by a surging aura of power. "Now, Wild Nature's Release! Because I still have DNA Surgery, my Dragon Knight is a Beast monster. So, this will increase his ATK by his DEF!"

The Dragon the knight rode howled as its power surged and a deep red aura surrounded both rider and mount. However, Jade wasn't done even now. She then played her other cards, both revealed to also be Wild Nature's Releases. The aura deepened with each card played, with the Dragon's howl reaching otherworldly in its sound. (8900/2100)

All the man did was curse before sighing, "Well, looks like I won't be winning this one." Then he caught a glimpse of Jade's face and what he saw frightened him to his core. The dark aura that was with him from nearly the beginning fled in obvious pain and terror as the Warden looked almost demonic with the combined glow of her and Gaia's auras.

Her voice also seemed to gain a non-human depth as she said, "You will not walk away from this blow alive! Now, accept your punishment disrespecting every Duel Spirit that has existed because of Duel Monsters! Wild Annihilation Flare!"

The mount of the Dragon Champion roared powerfully as intense energy surged in its maw. After several seconds of charging, the mighty energy was released as a stream of utter destruction. Before this surge of power, the targeted Neos was punched through like he wasn't even there. All the man could think as the stream headed straight for him was, _This won't kill me. It can't possibly kill me. This is just the hologram of a children's card...

* * *

_

"Police are baffled by the explosion that occurred last night at the mostly abandoned warehouse district. While a frequent hangout for gangs of various natures, everyone found near that area were unconscious. Reports are that no one was injured by the explosion as there was no body found near the location of the blast." This news report came from the big screen TV in the living room of James' house. Though, only Duel Spirits were watching as James and his friends were at school and his parents were at work. It was near impossible to identify every single spirit that had crammed into that room, but, an Elemental Hero Sparkman, one spoke up and expressed the thought that all spirits present felt as they watched.

"Bastard deserved that."

* * *

Alright. That's it for this chapter. Hope the next one comes out faster. Anyway, please review.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

* * *

It had been a rather boring day at school for James and his friends. No accidents in a chem-lab, no backbiting rumors to be squashed, nobody spiked the school lunches and no evil Duel Spirit to be contained. Heck, as far as they were aware, it was the most normal day of high school they ever had. So it was to their great pleasure to meet up after school, though James only stayed long enough to tell them that he had somewhere he needed to be. Since his friends knew that meant he had a rogue Spirit to deal with and they wouldn't be able to come, they acknowledged it with a nod before he ran off.

Shortly after he left, Sharona came out of the school and ran over to greet Maev. Her happy attitude did serve to put the gang a bit on edge, but that's mostly because they're more used to containing themselves for private moments. Anyway, Sharona was welcomed by the gang and they started chatting about their day at school. When they all expressed that boredom plus no real desire to head to their respective homes, Sharona spoke up and said she'd treat them to a cafe she likes. With nothing better to do for the moment, they agreed.

It was a few miles from the school, but that just gave them time to interact. The main thing was Sharona asking about Laird's and Aaron's decks. While Laird glossed over his with just being about the Element Spirits, Aaron was proud to proclaim to the newbie of the group that his Light Dragon deck contained a complete set of Blue-Eyes cards. This caught Sharona's interest, so she asked how he managed to get his hands on them. His response was that James had given them to him as a sign of their friendship, though when Sharona asked how Jame had gotten hold of such rare and expensive cards, Aaron took a few moments before saying that he didn't know and had never asked.

Once they got close to the cafe, however, they ran into something -or rather, someone- that was going to give them trouble. Outside of the cafe was a high school girl with dyed black hair, dressed in a heavy punk style, dueling against an older man, whose appearance was of a boring white collar worker and was cowering in fear of his opponent. Before they could identify the girl's monsters, she landed the blow that ended the game.

"Pathetic! This is exactly why I say that Men are worthless piles of shit! At least every woman duelist I've faced has scratched my life points a little! Damn it, now I'm bored!" The man quickly ran away as the girl turned around to see the gang approaching. Dismissively looking over Aaron and Laird, she turned to Maev and Sharona and said, "Why are you hanging around with this son of a bitch and poser? The world's better without men plaguing it and us."

To Sharona's surprise, Maev and Laird didn't react in any way while Aaron immediately gave the girl a death glare. The hands he had in the pockets of his newly patched letterman jacket were curled up into fists, but other than that, he just didn't do anything obvious but glare. The utter lack of response from the three caught the punk girl off guard as she was used to people reacting to her exclamations.

Maev cleared her throat before declaring, "Excuse me, but I have something to tell you, bitch."

Laird immediately looked over at his friend and said, "Maev, you just swore."

Maev looked back at him with a startled expression, "What, I did? Damn!"

Laird himself didn't react, but he did say, "You did it again."

The heterochromatic eyed girl again looked startled, "Again? Shit!"

His head sank a bit as everyone watched on, "Once more, you swore."

Her expression got more astonished, "Hell, I'm not doing it on purpose!"

This went on for a couple more minutes; each time Laird pointed her swearing out to Maev, she'd get more surprised and swear again. Finally, the punk got fed up with this seemingly unending loop.

"Excuse me! You said you had something to tell me, so tell me already, Dammit!"

The friends stopped the "conversation" so Maev could clear her throat again before she said, "Clench your damn teeth."

The punk girl only had time to make a confused "huh?" sound before a fist knocked her to the ground. She looked up in shock to see that Aaron had just punched her. It took a moment to let the pain ease, but the girl stood up and softly muttered.

"He hit me. A useless, disgusting male actually hit me!" Her shock turned to anger as she snapped at Aaron, "Where do you get off hitting me, you walking sperm bank! Men aren't supposed to hit women, they are supposed to worship the ground we walk on!"

When he didn't immediately answer, Maev spoke up for him, "You damn well provoked him by insulting his mother. Of course he's going to retaliate, bitch. Just be glad you got a damn warning from me before he did. Even though you pissed him off, he still won't hit anyone without them receiving a warning first. However, if you had continued to piss him off, he'd have knocked you flat without that warning."

Sharona listened to this and commented, "Jeez, and you're the one with the reputation at school for being a Spitfire. Though, why you didn't react in his defense?"

Maev looked back at the new person to the group and answered, "For one thing, I wasn't insulted personally and that also leads to the second thing. Aaron prefers to fight his own damn battles when it's personal for him. Basically, if he's angry, just stay out the hell of his way."

Hearing this explanation, Sharona asked, "Maev, why are you swearing if you aren't the one that's angry?"

With a look of astonishment, the golden eyed girl said, "What! I was swearing again? Damn my empathy! If I'm near someone who's feeling really violent emotions, then I just start cussing like a drunk sailor without realizing shit about what I'm saying."

While she wasn't used to being hit, the punk girl realized that she was facing a group that didn't sound like it was afraid of fighting back if she started something. She could have just walked away, but her pride was insulted by being punched by a male. So she went with the option that would allow her revenge for wounded pride while keeping her relatively safe from injury.

"Alright, you bastard. Do you duel?" Maev and Sharona got quiet as they waited for Aaron to answer. It took a few moments, but he gave a swift nod at the person who insulted his mother. Since it was a school policy to not allow duel disks on campus during open hours, students weren't allowed to carry regulation disks to and from school. This meant that Sharona was quite surprised to see Aaron pull out a device that looked like a flip top cell phone and attach it to his wrist.

When the device unfolded itself into a very thin duel disk, she exclaimed, "What! How was he able to afford a mini-disk! They're as expensive as iPads!"

"James," was all he said as he lifted the back of his jacket to reveal four deck cases attached to his belt. Sharona was again surprised, but didn't comment about this since she did know about James and his massive collection of decks that he carries around everywhere. Finally, after he chose a deck and slid it into his mini-disk, the punk girl backed up so they'd have room.

"Since you actually had the guts to hit me, I'll let you know my name for the duel," the girl said as she activated her disk and drew her starting five cards. "Nadia. Nadia Winslet."

"Aaron Marshall," came the response as he drew his cards too. They stood in silence for a moment as a wind swept by them.

"DUEL!" they shouted simultaneously. Laird, Maev and Sharona took some steps back as the duel kicked off.

(Aaron-8000LP; Nadia-8000LP)

"Normally I'd say ladies first, but since I challenged you, you can have first turn." Nadia declared matter-of-fact.

Aaron shrugged slightly as he drew his sixth card. It only took a moment before he took a couple cards from his hand and announced, "One card set and I'll summon Warrior Lady of the Wasteland in Attack Position!" (1100/1200)

The card hologram settled in front of him and a dirty blonde-haired woman leaped out from behind a nearby wall with a yell. She was dressed in a green halter top with matching skirt and boots, with a tattered cloak around her shoulders, a fedora on her head and bandages on her left arm from her knuckles all the way up to a pauldron. As the wind blew at her cloak, she pulled her slim long sword off her back. Aaron took one more card from his hand and declared, "I'll give her this Necklace of Command and end my turn."

A wire-thin necklace with a single gleaming gem formed on the Warrior Lady, who smiled back at her duelist. Nadia grunted as she drew and then took a card from her hand.

"I'll see your Warrior Lady and raise you Amazoness Chain Master!" A woman in a dyed blue fur bikini followed Aaron's monster and leaped out from behind a wall. She wore metal armlets, while gold colored chains were wrapped around them and ended with a weighted ball with a spike and two curved "talons". (1500/1300)

"Attack! Hunting Chain!" With a deft tug, the chains unwound from around her armlets and the Amazoness threw the weighted end at Aaron's Warrior Lady.

"In response, I activate Desperate Tag!" The face-down card flipped up to reveal a continuous trap card bearing an image of two pro wrestlers reaching for each other to make a tag. The spike struck Warrior Lady of the Wasteland, but she didn't shatter right away. Instead, she staggered back into Aaron and raised one hand, which her duelist slapped to indicate a tagout. She smiled as a muscular woman wearing a deeper blue bikini with fang accents, wielding a massive scimitar appeared next to her...and then she shattered. "Desperate Tag negates the damage I take from my Attack Position monster being destroyed by battle and allows me to summon a low-level Warrior from my hand. I chose Amazoness Swords Woman!" (1500/1600)

Before it could sink into Nadia that he had just summoned an Amazoness, the pixel remains of the Warrior Lady gathered and formed a portal. Additionally, the Necklace of Command had left behind its jewel, which hung in the air for the moment.

"Now, since the monster equipped with Necklace of Command was destroyed by battle, I can either draw once or make you discard one card from your hand. I'll choose to draw." The jewel merged into the top card of his deck, which he plucked before continuing. "Also, because Warrior Lady of the Wasteland was destroyed by battle and sent to the graveyard, I can summon a 1500 ATK or less Earth Warrior to replace her. So I choose Amazoness Archer!" (1400/1000)

Out of the portal came a younger brown-haired woman in a skirt, tube top and thick leather jacket. She had a longbow in her hands, which she readied for battle upon spotting Nadia. Summoning this new creature snapped Nadia out of her shock as she growled with angry eyes.

"What gives you the RIGHT to use an Amazoness deck! You're just a man!" Her Chain Master crossed her arms and nodded, though seemed a bit hesitant to want to fight other Amazonesses. Aaron didn't seem to react, though that was probably because he was still angry with her, but his monsters glared right back at the opposing duelist.

For their part, Maev, Laird and Sharona stood there in silence. However, once Nadia made her furious accusation, Maev closed her eyes for a moment before turning to the other two. "Come on, let's go get a seat inside. Aaron will be wanting something warm when this is over."

Sharona stared, rather stunned that the heterochromatic girl would suggest leaving her friend to duel alone. "You're not going to stay and watch? Why not?"

Laird was the one to respond, "Let's just say that this Nadia has made several mistakes that she will pay for shortly. If Maev suggests we go save a seat for him, then it's going to be like dueling a Legend."

'Like dueling a Legend' is a common saying nowadays. If someone says that, it meant a duel is expected to be short and painful, just like facing a Legendary Duelist. Sharona went wide-eyed at this, but indicated that she was going to stay and watch. Acknowledging this with a nod, Maev and Laird entered the cafe Sharona was taking them. The remaining student faced the duel once more, just as Nadia set a card down and gestured for Aaron to take his turn.

After drawing, Aaron wasted no time in making his next move. In a flash of light, a kitten-sized cat-like flower appeared. This caused Sharona to blink in surprise as she recognized the monster known as Dandylion (300/300). However, she had no idea why Aaron would put that in an Amazoness deck. Shortly afterwards, he slid a card into place and a beaded necklace with a wooden carving of a human with a giant green sphere in the middle put itself around Amazoness Archer's neck.

Sharona looked puzzled until she saw the shocked look on Nadia's face. That's when it clicked as to Aaron's strategy. Immediately, the Archer nocked an arrow and fired, the projectile glowing the same color as the jewel in the carving. It instantly pierced through the opposing Amazoness before she had time to dodge or block.

"I get it. That's Amazoness Heirloom, which protects the equipped monster from one battle a turn and destroys the monster attacked by the equipped monster," She mused quietly. "If he had equipped it on Swords Woman, then it'd have tied with Chain Master and then she could have gotten a monster from his hand. Sure, he took a sliver of damage, but he'll now do that much more damage while also protecting his hand. Brilliant!"

On an unspoken command, the Swords Woman and Dandylion rushed forward. A slash of sword and bite of fang later, they leaped back into position as Aaron continued his strategy.

(Aaron-7900LP; Nadia-6200LP)

Again, while he gave no commands, the three monsters nodded to each other. Swords Woman and Dandylion turned into balls of energy and fused together into the shape of an arrow. Archer nocked it and fired, piercing Nadia before it disappeared, which left holes in the front and back of her shirt. Afterwards, two huge dandylion seeds appeared next to the bow-user. In a repeat performance, the two seeds disappeared into balls of light and formed another arrow. This one struck her left cheek, leaving a noticeable cut.

(Aaron-7900LP; Nadia-3800LP)

Nadia reached up and touched her cheek in a stunned manner. Upon touching and then seeing the blood seeping out of the cut, she got angry. She clenched her bloodied hand and shouted.

"YOU BASTARD! You'll pay for harming my perfect face!" She pulled off the top card of her deck harshly. After a moment, she took two cards from her hand to start her counterattack. "My revenge for your insults starts by activating this Continuous Spell card, the Allied Forces!"

The named spell appeared and several Warrior-like fighters gathered around it as Nadia's facedown card flipped up, "I'll chain to it my next two cards in this order, Amazoness Willpower and Chain Summoning!"

Her now flipped Trap had the image of an injured Amazoness Paladin struggling to get up while a Quick-play Spell showed a dark armored man pulling a chain out of a dimensional gateway.

"Since I was able to activate Chain Summoning as the third link in my chain, I can now normal summon three times this turn! In addition, well, I don't think I have to tell you what Amazoness Willpower does!" Chain Master's hand burst out of the ground and pulled herself out with a look of determination and rage.

"She's not staying, but I'll get to that in just a moment. First, the effect of my Allied Forces increases the ATK all Warriors I control by 200 for each one!" The gathered soldiers gave a warcry and Chain Master gave one back. (1700/1300)

"Now, to assemble my army! First are both of my Amazoness Paladins!" Two identical women appeared; blonde hair covered by a cowl, bikini-style clothing typical of the other amazonesses and a slimmer sword than what Swords Woman carried around. They answered the crowd's battlecry with their own as well. (2600/300)

"Finally, to seal your defeat, you shit male...I release Chain Master to Advance Summon Amazoness Queen!" The revived Amazoness relaxed before disappearing. In her place was a wooden throne with a powerfully built, blue-haired woman sitting on it. Her garb seemed very typical of the Amazoness monsters while a thick headband covered her forehead and right eye. In her hand was a wicked scimitar that put Swords Woman's to shame. When she stood up, her throne vanished and the Paladins knelt to her. (3000/1800)

"Now, my Amazoness Warriors, strike down this male who dares consider himself our equal!" The Paladins shot out from their kneeling position to strike at Aaron's Archer. Her Heirloom formed a barrier that cracked on the first blow and then shattered with the second, knocking the monster into her duelist. When she raised her hand for a tag, Aaron shook his head to which Archer nodded in turn. Once Archer shattered, the Queen's blade slammed into his gut and knocked him several feet onto his back.

(Aaron-2500LP; Nadia-3800LP)

When he stood back up like it was nothing, Nadia gaped in shock, "How are you able to stand so quickly? NONE of the other males who were knocked down by that were able to! Heck, even some of the other women I enjoyed facing couldn't!"

Aaron didn't respond before drawing his card. To Sharona's ever increasing surprise and amazement, his glaring expression melted into a warm smile as he looked at the card. Switching his gaze back to his opponent also brought back his glare as he made his move. The instant flash of light that came from summoning brought forth a fierce looking woman with dark violet hair in a long braid and a very long bandana. Her clothes were dark leather, spiked pauldrons adorned her shoulders and leather boots ran up passed her knees. Her eyes locked onto Nadia with pure bloodlust in them as she gripped the dark leather hilt of her long sword. (2000/1000)

"The Unfriendly Amazon? Why does Aaron have her in his deck?" Sharona quietly mused to herself...while Nadia was openly mocking.

"The Unfriendly Amazon? If you wanted to give up, you could have just surrendered. Heck, why even include such an ugly, worthless, piece of shit monster..." Her sentence died out as she saw the only thing keeping Aaron from just running over to her and beating her up was the monster he just summoned. She blocked his path with one arm and he stepped back to his original position. Sharona had noticed that he calmed down somewhat when his monster stopped him.

"If that monster is the one he drew and smiled at, then what kind of connection does he have with The Unfriendly Amazon?" The watching duelist mused as a card from Aaron's hand vanished into the tray. A pit that seemed like a boiling cauldron erupted underneath Desperate Tag, which fell in. When two cards were spat out of the bubbling solution, Sharona realized what the card was.

"Magic Planter! He ditched his Desperate Tag to draw twice. I wonder if he got what he wanted..." With his hand up to four cards, Aaron made his move. One card slid into the disk's tray and a translucent scarf of rainbow colors draped The Unfriendly Amazon's shoulders and down her arms. "Must be a Rainbow Veil...He has a way to beat the Queen?"

Two more cards joined beside the first and, in a scream of rage and glowing aura, The Unfriendly Amazon's ATK skyrocketed! (3200/1000)

Sharona took a few steps over to see the cards he played. She saw them as the equip cards, Fighting Spirit and Assault Armor. Aaron swept his right hand and then The Unfriendly Amazon dashed forward. The mighty Warrior took the scarf in her non-sword hand and whipped it at the Queen. It wrapped around her empty arm before the berserker cut the Queen in two.

(Aaron-2500LP; Nadia-3600LP)

As the fragments of her Queen shatter, Nadia was left in utter disbelief. The Paladins expressed equal shock as their leader disappeared and the Unfriendly Amazon didn't look as enraged. (2300/300) (2900/1000)

Before they recovered, Aaron took the last card in his hand and plugged it into his disk. Sharona recognized the continuous Magic card that appeared next to the three equips as Jam Breeding Machine. A replica machine from the card's image materialized in front of the card itself.

"That explains how he's going to keep her on the field...Now it's Nadia's turn," That last part was spoken as said duelist regained composure and drew. She gained a cruel smile as she set a card face down and switched her Paladins to defense. Signalling that her turn was over, Aaron drew his card in silence. A tiny blob of slime popped out of the machine and was swiftly dispatched by a bloodlusting Unfriendly Amazon.

Aaron stood there in thought as his eyes flicked across the field. After a moment, he slid the card into place on his disk. In an instant, a lovely female angel shot out of the card and held three cards for him to take. He took them and checked them out before giving two of them back to the angel. Once the angel disappeared, he immediately played the card he got from her. The incredibly jeweled mug of the Pot of Avarice materialized, while Aaron pulled five cards from his graveyard. He revealed them to be Warrior Lady of the Wasteland, Amazoness Swords Woman, Dandylion, Amazoness Archer and his own copy of Amazoness Queen. They were sucked into the pot and then two cards were spit out in response.

Once he had his cards, he wasted no time in using them. With the first one played, Double Cyclone from what Sharona could tell, two differently colored tornadoes engulfed his Jam Breeding Machine and Nadia's face-down card and took them away. Before he played the second one, the glowing aura around the Unfriendly Amazon compressed itself onto her sword while taking away the strength it gave her. (2600/1000)

However, when Aaron played his other card, which Sharona saw was an H-Heated Heart, a fiery aura replaced it as she roared with power. (3100/1000)

The Warrior didn't even wait for her duelist's command, she just rushed forward and cut both Paladins down with a single sweep with the aura on her blade. After the monsters were slain by the aura, it struck Nadia with equal force and threw her backwards a few feet. It took a moment of breather, but the female duelist got up and even more damage to her shirt. The aura had cut the front of her shirt so that a huge gap exposed her midriff.

"You won this round, MALE, but you just wait! I'll be back for vengence!" Nadia swore while running away. Aaron ignored the threat as he turned around and let out a long breath. Sharon watched as his angry face faded into a more stoic look. While curious, she said nothing as the duelist marched passed her and into the cafe. Sharona then realized that she was alone and ran after him.

* * *

It was a relatively small cafe, though a bit larger than a typical Starbucks shop. Maev, Laird, Aaron and Sharona sat around a table that looked only big enough to hold a couple of laptops from edge to edge. Each one had a cup of coffee in front of them, though Aaron and Sharona's looked more like tea cups.

"How is it? The fabled Blue-Eyes Mountain coffee brand? Worth the ridiculous price?" Laird inquired about his friend's drink.

Aaron continued sipping it for a moment before responding, "Well, say what you want about Kaiba and his legacy, but this coffee's awesome. Not exactly worth the price, but I'll just chalk it up to KaibaCorp's insistence on having it marked at 3000 yen a cup to any store it sells the mix to."

"Except for the non-Japanese countries, where it's sold at a relatively equivalent price. Like this cafe selling it for $30.00," Maev scoffed at the high price for a single cup of coffee. "Even if it's the best coffee in the world, I'll stick to getting ten cups of a different brand for the same amount, thank you. Not like I'll touch anything related to that arrogant dickhead."

"It's not that bad, Maev dear. I've been having this blend for as long as this shop's had it and it's effective for waking me up." Sharona spoke soothingly, before taking another sip. Once she set the cup down again, she asked. "I've been wondering why your friend, James, left around the time I got there. Does he not like me?"

Maev was quick to say otherwise, "He hasn't really met you yet, so he doesn't hold any strong opinion about you. Now you are curious to know where he went, yes?"

Sharona just stared at Maev in amazement that she had been that easy to read. The empath shrugged it off as part of her empathy.

"While I don't know where he is exactly, I can tell you about his occupation. Let me tell you, if you want to be a regular in our group, you'll have to get used to it."

* * *

I'll call this chapter done. Hopefully, I'll have faster ideas for the next one.


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

* * *

James was currently in the middle of dealing with a bunch of renegade Machine Spirits, specifically Robotic Knights, inside of an underground munitions storage area of a military base near the city. Because of how dangerous Machine Spirits tend to be compared to many other kinds, James was fully covered in polished plate mail armor marked with numerous runes and glyphs. A wide-bladed longsword, also runic, was held easily in his hands as he cut down a Robotic Knight that got close to use its own blade. He paused for a moment as he was starting to get fatigued from the fighting.

"I remember how easy these things were while I still had my gifts." James said as numerous Robotic Knights lay behind him in sparking and twitching piles. Ahead of him were twice as much as the piles behind him, each one pointing their left arm Gatling Guns at the armored Warden. "Well, I don't ever remember facing so many before, but they aren't going to kill themselves, now are they?"

About half an hour later, James had cut down another several piles of the Machine spirits and there was still a large number for him to deal with. The tiring duelist placed the tip of his sword on the ground and leaned on the pommel.

"This isn't working...Where the heck are they all coming from?" While blocking a barrage from their vulcans in tandem with several of them getting close to swipe at James with their sabers, the young Warden tried to look beyond the swarming Robotic Knights. There was only one thing he could see at the far end of the storage area, an alternating pulse of yellow and violet.

James was knocked backwards by the saber strikes in his distraction, only protected by his enchanted armor. As he was recovering from the blows, a strong and confident voice rang in the Warden's ear.

"Having trouble? I can help fight these guys off, you know." The duelist called Legion knew who was talking without looking, though if he had looked to his left, he'd have seen a humanoid form. The person's outfit looked like it would fit right in with Super Sentai or Power Rangers. It was a mostly black body suit with a grey skull motif, with the helmet most obviously skull like in decal while still maintaining a black visor and aesthetic mouth. Around his waist was a white belt with a futuristic pistol, a collapsed sword of some kind and what looked like a modernized magic wand.

"Hello to you too, Trigger." James greeted the immobile figure as he tiredly swung his runic longsword. The enchanted blade passed through the nearest metallic bodies with little resistance until it got stuck in the last one. The Warden cursed his luck. "Great, of all the times for the Vorpal effect to give out! I don't have the magic required to recharge it anymore!"

Since he couldn't pull the weapon free as more Robotic Knights advanced on him, he left it in the sparking remains as the runes on his armor's gauntlets glowed. The man named Trigger just watched like a statue as the young Warden unleashed magical blows on the mechanical foes. However, as the runes started flickering, James sighed and asked the dressed up man. "I'm running low on my runic magic. I would appreciate your assistance."

Instantly, Trigger struck a pose, that just fit his costume quite well, and shouted, "Guardian of the Ancient Arts, Skull Sorcery Ranger!" With that declaration, he rushed towards the Robotic Knights. Said Spirits were baffled by this strange man running at them, but they didn't have any time to analyze him as he plowed through the nearest ones like a bowling ball through its pins. Blasts of Gatling fire sparked off his suit, but not slowing him down in the least as he started knocked them around like ragdolls. In the midst of this melee, Trigger would unleash multiple spells into their numbers; scorching balls of Fire and Lightning, cutting streams of Water, drilling missiles of Earth and Wind.

As the mighty warrior held off the Machine Spirits, James gathered his strength for the rush towards the area he suspected of being why this army appeared. As he approached the ever changing pulse of violet and yellow, he had a growing feeling of dread the closer he got. Again, he cursed his luck as he made out what was summoning all those Robotic Knights. It was a very large spherical Machine with alternating pulses of Yellow and Violet from somewhere inside it.

"I should have known that it's a Sphere of Chaos! Those annoying hunks of metal are always such a pain in the ass!" The Warden recalled the few Spheres he had sealed away before, having difficulty each time despite their low stats for a Duel Spirit. The difficulty was due to their unpredictability, typical for the majority of Monsters under the Chaos theme, but also due to how quickly they could build up an army of servant Spirits, especially with how new these Spirits are, and due to incredible durability, reflected in their ability to resist being destroyed by battle once per turn in card form. He hadn't been able to come up with an effective way to deal with them before he was stripped of his gifts.

As he finally reached the chaotic Machine Spirit, he'd hear a grating mechanical voice come from it, "DUEL SPIRIT WARDEN DETECTED. UNABLE TO RECALL ROBOTIC KNIGHTS. CALCULATING PROPER DEFENSIVE MEASURES."

It was taking James some effort to maintain his standing position. Since he didn't want to expend what would amount to an unnecessary effort in bringing it down, the Warden began the ritual he and the other Wardens he knew of capturing an unruly Spirit with a lesser risk of injury.

"Hey! Let me ask you something...Are you old enough to Duel?"

"CALCULATING TIME SYSTEMS ACTIVE...SIX DAYS, TEN HOURS, THIRTY-SIX MINUTES AND SEVENTEEN SECONDS SINCE AWARE OF ONLINE FUNCTIONALITY. DUEL SYSTEMS OPTIMAL. DECK CONSTRUCTION COMPLETE. DUEL STANDBY!"

On the gauntlet of Jame's right arm, the runes flashed before being covered by the cobalt blue metal of his custom disk. He'd seem to listen to something for a moment before using the same spell Jade used before her duel, a deck instantly appearing in his left hand. Securing the deck in the disk, it'd activate as James stares down the Machine Spirit in front of him.

"Deck all set. Now then..."

"DUEL!" Both Duelists declared as James drew five cards and five holographic cards appeared in front of the giant sphere. The grating voice of the Machine would then spoke.

"CALCULATIONS DETERMINE THAT CHALLENGED DUELIST GOES FIRST. DRAW," The five cards in front of it grew to six before it immediately went down to five again as a familiar spell card was played. "ACTIVATE DOUBLE SUMMON. TWO NORMAL SUMMONS CAN OCCUR THIS TURN. NORMAL SUMMON SANGAN." (1000/600)

A pool of violet energy covered a small space in front of the Sphere of Chaos and out of it crawled a brown little furball with a pair of long spindly arms and three eyes. James became stone-faced as he took control of his emotions once more. His opponent didn't seem to care as it continued.

"RELEASE SANGEN TO ADVANCE SUMMON VAMPIRE DRAGON." The furball would turn into a ball of violet energy which lifted into the air. It then split and folded in on itself before a serpentine form flew out and it disappeared. The draconic monster that was summoned had a deep violet and muscular body, with three fingers on its front arms, no legs and short bat wings. Its face was somewhat unsettling, with four deadly looking fangs and one big yellow eye, which quickly focused on James. However, the Warden held his ground at the gaze. (2400/0)

"EFFECT OF SANGAN, ADD ONE MONSTER WITH 1500 ATK OR LESS TO HAND WHEN SENT TO GRAVEYARD. CHOOSE LEFT ARM OF THE FORBIDDEN ONE!" James cursed silently to himself as a large hologram of the called out card appear in front of the Machine Spirit before being added to its hand. However, the giant Sphere was not done. "EFFECT OF HAMMER SHOT! DESTROY FACE UP ATTACK POSITION MONSTER WITH HIGHEST ATK!"

The Warden realized what its plan was as a massive wooden hammer slammed down onto the Zombie dragon. When the hammer disappeared, and the crushed monster with it, the Machine spoke up again, "EFFECT OF VAMPIRE DRAGON, WHEN TRIBUTE SUMMONED AND SENT TO GRAVEYARD, CAN ADD LEVEL FOUR OR LOWER MONSTER TO HAND. CHOOSE RIGHT ARM OF THE FORBIDDEN ONE!"

Another holographic card appeared, indeed revealed to be the Right Arm of Exodia, and was added to the hand of the Machine. One of the four cards, the two known pieces of Exodia among them, in the Sphere of Chaos's hand disappeared before solidifying face-down on the field in front of it. "ONE CARD SET. TURN COMPLETE!"

"About time," James deadpanned before drawing his card. Without a glance at it, he set it on his tray, declaring with a violet glow around him. "I summon Don Zaloog."

The aura spread outward before coalescing into a humanoid shape before dissipating. The sight wasn't what James was expecting, but he didn't react to it much. Instead of his usual outfit and weaponry, the violet haired Warrior was dressed in a bathrobe with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and an half eaten egg sandwich in the other. While trying to maintain his emotional control, the Warden addressed the newly summoned spirit.

"Enjoying your house arrest, Don?"

The violet haired spirit started, but looked at his duelist with a smile on his face, "You bet, Boss! Even the spirits that have been watching us have been sitting down with us for meals." He took a large bite of his sandwich before washing down with some coffee.

Now composed, James replied, "That's good to hear, though perhaps we can wait to discuss this after the duel is over."

Upon that remark, Don paused before looking over at the large sphere in front of the two of them. He then shoved the rest of his sandwich into his mouth and downed the rest of his coffee before the mug disappeared. Then, he grabbed his bathrobe and yanked it off, somehow revealing his normal outfit underneath; the robe disappearing from his hand afterward. Then, the master thief pulled out a pair of pistols and aimed them, declaring, "I'm ready when you are, Boss."

James would nod before stating while a pair of holographic cards appeared on the field, "Two cards set. Now Don Zaloog, attack with Shot in the Dark!"

"My favorite!" The spirit declared with a laugh as he opened fire on the Sphere of Chaos. A bullet pierced one of the holograms the Duel Spirit had, which turned around to reveal a rather old Effect Monster card.

"EFFECT OF ELECTRIC SNAKE, WHEN DISCARDED FROM HAND BY OPPONENT CARD EFFECT, DRAW TWO CARDS!"

The Machine quickly added two cards to replace the discarded monster, even as its lifepoints ticked down to 6600.

The master thief frowned, "Electric Snake? Who uses that anymore?"

"This thing apparently," deadpanned his Duelist. "Turn end."

"DRAW!" The Sphere of Chaos blasted at his opponents, "TRAP ACTIVATE, CALL OF THE HAUNTED! SPECIAL SUMMON SANGAN FROM GRAVEYARD!"

A darkish mist spewed out of the card, forming into the three-eyed fiend with a wispy trail leading back to the card. The machine apparently wasn't done as a card vanished from its hand.

"NORMAL SUMMON, WITCH OF THE BLACK FOREST!" A woman in black robes materialized next to the smaller creature in front of the Machine. (1100/1200) Another card disappeared from its hand, appearing on the field as a card familiar to any Fusion using duelist.

"EFFECT OF POLYMERIZATION, SEND TWO OR MORE MONSTERS ON FIELD OR IN HAND TO GRAVEYARD, FUSION SUMMON MONSTER THAT LISTS THEM AS MATERIAL! FUSION SUMMON SANWITCH!"

The two monsters were drawn into a portal that opened up in front of the Polymerization card. After a moment, a new monster would emerge from the portal. The monster was a squat, kid-sized mage with blue-green skin. (2100/1800) However, for Jame and Don Zaloog, the effects of the monsters used to summon it were more important.

"EFFECT OF SANGAN AND WITCH OF THE BLACK FOREST! CAN NOW ADD ONE MONSTER WITH 1500 OR LESS ATK AND ONE MONSTER WITH 1500 OR LESS DEF FROM DECK TO HAND! CHOOSE RIGHT LEG OF EXODIA AND LEFT LEG OF EXODIA!" The two cards appeared in front of the Sphere of Chaos before being added to its hand.

"Shoot! This is looking really bad for us, Boss!" The master thief exclaimed as he seemed to brace himself.

"It's already got four pieces of Exodia in its hand. Though, it apparently doesn't have the last piece or it would have activated by now." The Warden responded.

"Thank goodness for small favors." Don Zaloog returned as he stared down the stronger monster on the Sphere's field. Said monster looked like it was getting ready to attack as it held up its staff.

"SANWITCH, ATTACK WITH TRIPLEX COMBINATION-DELTA DESTRUCT!" The magic-user carved a glowing triangle in the air with its weapon, each point holding a different colored orb. Then, the triangle started to spin around and slowly shrink down to a single point in the middle of itself. This resulted in a larger sphere than each point had been, which Sanwitch then shot towards Don Zaloog. However, one of James' face-down cards flipped up.

"Mirror Wall, when my opponent declares an attack, this trap halves that monster's ATK points." A glittering barrier sprung up between Don Zaloog and Sanwitch, the orb of magic impacting it and being reduced to half size after breaking through while cracks appeared on the monster who launched it. (2100 - 1050/1800 Instead of batting the blast aside, the master thief grabbed it in midair and stuffed it into one of his guns. Then he pointed the pistol at Sanwitch and fired, shooting the energy right back at his opponent. It passed through the magic user, shattering it to particles, but wasn't stopped until it impacted against another card in the Sphere of Chaos's hand.

As it's lifepoints clicked down to 6250, the struck card lit on fire as it flipped around. A small frown creased James's face when the card disappeared, only to be replaced by two more cards.

"First Electric Snake, then Broww, Huntsman of Dark World. Four pieces of the Forbidden One on its second turn. I think there's something rotten about this." The master thief looked at the Machine warily as a card disappeared from it's hand and a magic card materialized in front of it.

"SECOND MAIN PHASE, EFFECT OF FOOLISH BURIAL! SELECT ONE MONSTER IN DECK, SEND TO GRAVEYARD! CHOOSE EXODIA, THE FORBIDDEN ONE!" However, it apparently not done, because as soon as Foolish Burial vanished, another magic card took its place. "EFFECT OF DARK ERUPTION! SELECT ONE DARK MONSTER WITH 1500 ATK OR LESS IN GRAVEYARD! ADD MONSTER TO HAND!"

However, as Don Zaloog tensed and waited for the almighty monster that meant victory for anyone who assembled it, James merely took a card from his hand and discarded it while declaring, "Not so fast! You think I wouldn't figure it out! Even with my powers dulled, you can't pull that kind of cheating on me! D.D. Crow, take his victory away from him!"

A portal leading to some unseen other dimension ripped open on the ceiling, allowing a bird with black feathers and cybernetic parts to swoop down and disappear into the Sphere of Chaos. It's alternating yellow and violet lights started switching rapidly as the crow did whatever it was doing inside the machine. Then, it reappeared, carrying a large ball of energy with the head and torso of the massive humanoid behemoth inside it. As the bird somehow flew with that ball into the portal and disappeared, Don Zaloog frowned.

"Cheating, Boss? This thing was trying to win through unfair means? How?"

The Duel Spirit Warden narrowed his eyes as he explained, "There's always a risk of outright cheating if you can't see the deck an opponent uses. As powerful enough entities use spells or certain machines use integrated data to duel, it's always a possibility that they know how to manipulate what they draw where you can't see it. However, the very first thing I managed to get back from the Divine Benefactor of us Wardens was an anti-cheating enchantment for such occasions. Still, it's not perfect. While it prevents outright cheating, like say drawing all five pieces of Exodia in your opening hand or switching cards in the deck around, it won't prevent passive spells or programs that influence random draws like enchantments of fortune. That said, there's another layer of cheating that it's been doing that I only caught because it did it twice in a row for the same effect."

"Boss, you mean it cheated when I used my effect to send cards from it's hand to the graveyard?!" That bit of information shocked the master thief. Thieving tricks and bypassing traps was a specialty of the Dark Scorpions, but the vast majority considered themselves honorable Duel Spirits. Sure, they would usually steal everything not nailed down and take the nails along with what was, but that was the general scope of their misdeeds. Dueling was very much a way of life to Duel Spirits, so to hear of one who was cheating was practically unheard of! To make a comparison, it'd bringing a gun to an archery competition.

"Yeah, it was very subtle. It's using a dual layered hologram system, one for projecting the back of the card and another for the image on the card. That way, it could switch what card was where in his hand after the card to discard was chosen, without the cards themselves being shifted around."

However, before James could decide if he should go the direct route to punish and contain the Spirit, the Sphere of Chaos spoke up.

"PLAN A; FAILURE! PLAN B; IN PROGRESS!" Its one remaining card that wasn't an Exodia piece disappeared, materializing on the field, "EFFECT OF CARD DESTRUCTION! BOTH PLAYERS DISCARD ALL CARDS IN HAND!"

The Duel Spirit Warden went stoic again, though was a bit disappointed by the cards he had to lose. After they had redrawn, the Machine's four card hand was reduced by half as two face-down cards materialized; one in each zone. "TURN COMPLETE!"

"Draw," James said, now with three cards in hand.

* * *

Back with his circle of friends, they had left that cafe and were on their way to James's house to wait for him to return. Maev, Laird and Aaron, the three familiar with the place, immediately called out that they were there, making Sharona wonder if they were informing James's parents. However, she questioned that after Aaron declared.

"We've got someone new with us and James has decided that she can learn! No need to hide right now!" The "new girl" was about to ask what he was talking about, but before she could even form the words a woman with cybernetic parts, like a glass dome as the top of her skull and cable attached to her leotard near the navel, materialized in front of them. Sharona's shock was expected as her mind tried to process the fact that a Mind on Air appeared out of...thin air.

"I have informed Master James that you have arrived and are waiting for his return. Mr. and Mrs. Maverick are currently away as well. Perhaps you can catch them in today's Professional League matches?" The cybernetic Spellcaster stated before bowing and walking away. It took a couple of minutes, but Sharona was eventually snapped out of her shocked state so she wouldn't be left in the entrance of the house. The group would then head towards the living room, explaining things to their newest member along the way. After what she had just experienced, denying the existence of Duel Spirits was difficult. Since they would walk in on about a dozen or so spirits from different archetypes watching a Pro League match on the giant TV, any kind of denial that could have been forming was quickly destroyed.

A Gilford the Lightning and Dark Eradicator Warlock hogged up a decent amount of the couch with their sizes with a few monsters that the newcomer didn't know filling out the rest. On the floor was: a couple of Hero Kids, a Neo-Spacian Flare Scarab, a Magician's Valkyria, a Volcanic Slicer and the rest were monsters that Sharona didn't recognize. The four normal humans were allowed to take the spots the big spirits had been occupying as they grumbled discontent about the duels so far. As they disappeared into the hallway, however, the current match would end and the analysts started commenting.

"Well Edward, that was a rather disappointing bout we just watched between two relative newcomers, Houston Jones and Pierce McDonald. It only lasted five turns in a one-sided match with Pierce as the victor!"

"Yes, Victor. Pierce was in full control from the start with his V-to-Z Ojama deck dominating Houston's Deep Sea Dwellers. At least it wasn't as boring as that Plant stall/burn deck used by Harriet Summers during her debut match against number 47 of the top fifty Pro League duelists, William George and his Selective Sealing deck."

"HOWEVER Edward, we have one that promises to be a crowd pleaser! A Tag Force rules double team of Riley Solomon with his Recycling Scraps deck partnered with Fernandez Jackson and his Eternal Machinations deck. Their opponents, none other than the most well known married couple of the Pro Leagues, numbers 28 and 33 respectively in the top fifty, Mr. Vincent Maverick and Mrs. Nastasha Maverick, both licensed powerhouses of the Cyber Styles!"

The look of surprise on Sharona's face told the whole story. She apparently either didn't watch much of the Pro Leagues or never made the connection to the friend of Maev. Shaking her head to recover her senses, she'd then comment.

"So, James's parents are in the top fifty of the Pro League and licensed users of the Cyber Style? Wow, he's got a good pedigree going, huh? Does this mean he's gotten a license for the Cyber Style too?"

Licenses came up when certain splashable cards within specific archetypes were limited or forbidden and thus upset people who devoted themselves to said archetypes. The Cyber Style duelists were hit especially hard when people started abusing the poor Cyber Dragon, so much so that they actually petitioned for most Cyber Machine cards to be strictly taken out of the majority of booster packs and allowed only practitioners of the Cyber Style to dispense them as they saw fit. In addition, they called for a ruling that would allow practitioners exception to the restricted lists if the cards were from the Cyber Style. Thus, officials came up with Licensing to allow for that kind of ruling.

When that was passed, other Duel Styles took to doing the same thing. Nowadays, most duelists only have cards from those Duel Styles either because the cards were from before the Licensing or they were given it by a Licensed Style duelist. It isn't technically illegal for non-licensed Duelists to have the cards, but Licensed practitioners tend to be cross with them if they weren't given them from someone also Licensed. The reason for this is because cards from Licensed practitioners have a seal on them to indicate that the card was given to someone from that Style. Not perfect for preventing misuse, but it definitely helped.

However, this came with its own restriction. In exchange for being allowed unrestricted use of certain cards in official tournaments, certain combos couldn't be used by anyone with that license. If a licensed practitioner used such a combo, officials were allowed to not only strip them of their license, but also confiscate their deck too. Guardian Style duelists were especially under scrutiny due to Butterfly Dagger-Elma's known usage in unfair combos.

Anyway, the person who answered her questions was Aaron, saying, "Yeah, he's licensed in the Cyber Style. In fact, due to his job, he has licenses in multiple Styles. Though, he's not very high up in any of the Styles, save for the Cyber Style due to his parents getting him registered early."

The rich girl frowned before asking, "What is his job anyway? You guys have mentioned it a few times recently, but you haven't gone into detail." She'd pause before looking at the Duel Spirits that were busy watching the TV. Then, she'd continue, "Um, I'm going to guess that it has something to do with these Duel Monsters, right?"

The three friends looked at each other and realized that it wasn't going to be easy to explain. After all, Maev and Laird were still fairly new to it themselves, having only become friends with the young Warden about a year ago. Aaron was the one who had known James the longest, having been his friend years before he took the job. So with James currently working, it fell to his longest friend to inform the newcomer.

* * *

Okay, I'm going to end this chapter here. Ugh, when it comes to my focus, I may as well have ADHD. Sorry for all the wait, whoever's still watching me for this story. Hopefully, I'll get on the next chapter soon. Anyway, I'll be trying to do some world building next time, with at least some of the Pro League Tag Duel and possibly the conclusion to James's encounter with the Sphere of Chaos.


End file.
